Like rival promoter Eddie Hearn, Frank Warren has had his say on the developing story that is Tyson Fury Vs. Anthony Joshua. Hearn told Talk Sport that he has “doubts” the fight will happen this year, while he also stated that he doesn’t believe Fury is serious about the fight offer he unexpectedly sent out to AJ via a social media video message last night.
Warren also spoke with Talk Sport, and he said Fury is very much serious about wanting the fight, with Warren saying the fight will take place in the UK “hopefully in November.” Warren also said that in his opinion the fight can pull in a staggering 2 million pay-per-view buys. But there could be plenty of work to be done, and agreements made, before this massive, massive fights gets over the line.
Hearn actually said this morning that if Fury is adamant the fight takes place as soon as November, this could prove to be a big problem. AJ, has, after all, just had a tough 12 round fight with Oleksandr Usyk (tough mentally more so than physically).
But Warren says the fight will happen.
“It will be in the UK and hopefully in November,” Warren said today. “That’s what we’re looking at. How we make it work is that Tyson insists the fight is in the UK. So it’s got to work. He wants to fight here and deliver to the British fans. It will deliver a significant gate because there is massive interest from the British public, and it will break all pay-per-view records. Once they confirm they are interested and accept the position where we are, we will work collectively to maximize the income between us. It depends on what the price of the fight is, who knows what it would be priced at. I personally think it could hit two million buys.”
But it wasn’t long ago that Fury was saying he would fight Joshua “for free,” with the fans to be let in for free, the fight to go out on regular, or “free” TV. Nobody believed that would ever happen, yet why did Fury say it? It will now come down to money, and lots of it. Fans, like Hearn, are not getting their hopes up. November is just too soon, for Joshua at least (three months or less after his hard and draining fight with Usyk?), and if this proves to be a sticking point as Hearn suggested it could be, there will be no fight. At least not this year.
All we can do at this point is await developments.
