London Mayor Sadiq Khan has pleaded with the promoters of the potential fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua to host the event in the United Kingdom.
Fury and Joshua both signed an agreement with Saudi boxing powerbroker Turki Alalshikh earlier this year to fight each other. While they both came through final tune-up bouts in July, negotiations have been at a near stand-still in recent weeks due to a conflict about the location of the bout.
Fury has said he is prepared to fight anywhere, while Joshua's contract explicitly states it must take place in the UK.
Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn last month sent an addendum to Saudi promotion company Sela with fresh requests in exchange for agreeing to fight in the United States, where Sela and broadcaster Netflix would prefer the event to take place.
Hearn has insisted they are still battling for the fight to be in the UK and now Mayor Khan has said he wants to see the event in Britain.
"I'm a big boxing fan, as you know," Khan told Sky Sports. "We've hosted some of the biggest boxing events in history in London during my mayoralty. Many British fans are fans of Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. Many Londoners love both Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.
"Both Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua recognise the importance of British boxing fans. The promoters know we're here to help. We've approached those in the know to say we're here to help.
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"Eddie Hearn has approached us and we're keen to work with Eddie and the team. I understand the temptation of going to Madison Square Garden, of the money on offer, but the fans are here.
"We've been loyal to Tyson and Anthony. We love them both and we'd love to see them box here in London."
Hearn said this week negotiations are ongoing, but time is "running out" if the fight is to take place in November.
Fury said on Thursday he was prepared to move on from the fight if a deal wasn't done soon.
"There's nothing I can do. I can't make a coward fight, can I?" Fury said on social media.
"I've been waiting 10 years for this and been ready every time. One thing I won't be doing is wasting my later years with a freak who doesn't want to fight. So I will move on. There's plenty of world champions out there who do want to fight, who do want to make some money, so I'll be giving them a knock.
"Agit Kabayel, [Filip] Hrgovic, Daniel Dubois. Whoever else there is. They can fight me in November because this is going nowhere."
