The International Boxing Federation [IBF] have confirmed that Anthony Joshua will not have a firm "due date" for his mandatory defense.

Joshua, who holds the IBF, WBA, IBO, WBO world titles, was scheduled to face the mandatory challenger under the IBF, Kubrat Pulev, on June 20th at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.

The event was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

At the moment there is no concrete date or location for the fight with Pulev - although there are some candidates in the running, like the Middle East and Croatia.

Because of the ongoing pandemic, the IBF will not impose any mandatory deadlines at the moment.

"Given the current circumstances we are being flexible. It is difficult to put a firm date on mandatory obligations at the moment. Everyone is working hard to get things going with boxing again and hopefully everything will be on track soon," the IBF said in a statement to Sky Sports.

Eddie Hearn, who promotes Joshua, would like to stage the Pulev fight on UK soil - but with the current COVID-19 restrictions, which prevent a live audience at sporting events, it makes that scenario nearly impossible.

 "Our absolute priority is to stage the fight in the UK," Hearn told Sky Sports.

"It would be great for sports coming back, and businesses coming back, to have a world heavyweight title fight taking place on these shores. We've had interest from the Middle East, the Far East, yet to receive anything official from Croatia but they have shown interest too.

"But we'd like to do it [in the UK]. We are starting to look at venues that are smaller. There is the possibility of us staging the AJ fight in the UK. I don't think it will be behind closed doors. If we can get some kind of number together [for a potential crowd] we can create an exclusive event to keep this fight in the UK."