RIYADH: Andy Ruiz Jr. and Anthony Joshua on Sunday toured the 15,000 seat stadium that will be the scene for their world heavyweight title clash in Saudi Arabia.
The “Clash on the Dunes” will take place in the UNESCO heritage site Diriyah on the edge of Riyadh.
Organizers constructed the arena in less than a month to stage one of the biggest sporting events to take place in the Middle East.
The Mexican-American fighter Ruiz, who will be laying his WBO, IBF, WBA and IBO belts on the line described the venue as “amazing”
“It’s amazing to be fighting over here, it’s going to be really historic and I’m planning to make history over here,” he said as he looked around the arena. “It’s a lot different. When I first got here none of this was here so it’s unbelievable.”
The stadium was built from almost 300 tons of steel to cover an area of 10,000 square meters. It was built to host the thousands of fans flying in from dozens of countries to see the fight.
Britain’s Joshua, who lost the belts to Ruiz at their first match in New York earlier this year, said it was going to be an “incredible night.”
“I’m thrilled so many of my fans are going to be there, particularly from the UK,” he said. “It’ll definitely be a night people will tell their grandchildren they were at, one of those iconic evenings of boxing. Everyone from Saudi has been brilliant to work with.”
Diriyah is the venue for a series of international sports events in the space of a month. Last weekend, it hosted the Formula E, and later this month the Diriyah Tennis Cup and Diriyah Equestrian Festival will take place in the historic setting.
Andy Ruiz Jr. and Anthony Joshua tour Diriyah stadium ahead of Saudi clash
Andy Ruiz Jr. and Anthony Joshua tour Diriyah stadium ahead of Saudi clash
