Promoter Eddie Hearn has said that the start time for the proposed Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury won't be as late as some fans are fearing.
Matchroom's Hearn, who represents Joshua, all-but confirmed the dream fight is close to being agreed for Friday, Dec. 11 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.
The first bell will sound later than tradition dictates in order to maximise the worldwide audience for the Netflix broadcast.
"People talk about a 3 a.m. BST [10 p.m. ET] fight? I don't think you'll see the fight that late," Hearn said at the post-fight news conference after Pat Brown won the vacant British and Commonwealth cruiserweight titles against John Hedges.
"But obviously there had to be conversations with the stadium about what's possible and what is not possible. That's probably a reason for the delay [of the official announcement] -- to make sure everything is boxed off with the council to have a slightly later start time."
Joshua (30-4, 27 KOs) and Fury (36-2-1, 25 KOs) signed contracts earlier this year with Saudi powerbroker Turki Alalshikh to finally stage the fight that the heavyweight division has demanded for almost a decade.
They each came through summer warm-up bouts -- although Joshua had to climb off the canvas to stop Kristian Prenga -- but the location remained a sticking point.
Hearn and Joshua, who insisted their contract stated the fight had to take place in the UK and not in New York, which later became a proposal, appear to have got their way.
"Over the past week or two, we made our decision. AJ was the guy leading that decision," Hearn said. "We weren't interesting in accepting extra money or changing the terms of the agreement to change the location. He wanted to make sure the fight was in the UK.
"Since then, they have accepted that. We Are working together and speaking to Netflix to lock in the date. I think the date is locked in."
Hearn insisted that there were no significant barriers to announcing Joshua vs. Fury on Dec. 11 in Cardiff.
Fury's promoter Warren told iFL: "Tyson's contract was for [the fight] to go on elsewhere. Tyson has made this fight happen by coming to the UK. He could have said 'contractually, I don't have to do this.' Tyson wants to fight because he firmly believes he is going to knock [Joshua] out."
Although neither man holds a version of the world heavyweight title anymore, they remain the two biggest names in the division and have been on a collision course to settling their all-British rivalry for years.