Boxing fans faced long wait to get home after Joshua fight
BOXING fans from across South Wales faced queues of more than five hours to get a taxi home in the early hours of Sunday after Anthony Joshua’s fight against Carlos Takam.
There had been a sellout crowd at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday night to see Joshua defend his WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles against Takam. Among the 78,000 fans were celebrities including Colin Farrell and Idris Elba.
There had been warnings of chaos in the city as there was not only the boxing, but Cardiff faced Millwall on Saturday afternoon.
With no trains, many opted for taxis but the queues were huge.
Michael Lambert travelled from Porth in the Rhondda to watch the fight.
The 36-year-old said he and his group of four friends queued for five hours to get a taxi.
“The trains going to the Valleys stopped at 11pm and we were left with no way of getting home,” Michael said.
“I joined the queue at about 11pm and by the time we got to the front at 4am, the queue was still going back as far as the eye could see.
“We have been to many rugby internationals and rock concerts but I have never seen a queue that bad before.”
Michael said the stress led to some fights breaking out.
He added: “It’s an embarrassment to Wales. I could hear some people saying they never will attend a sporting event at Cardiff again.
“It was a bit of a shame because I don’t think it gave the city a very good name.”
After the fight finished at around 11.10pm fans flooded into the streets of Cardiff, packing the pubs as people celebrated the British win.
South Wales Police tweeted at 1.05am warning revellers that Greyfriars Road clubs and pubs had reached capacity, with hundreds still queuing in the street.
Plenty of people had a memorable night, with one huge group of fans launching a singsong outside the City Arms.
On Sunday, Chief Superintendent Belinda Davies said it had been a “challenging” night.