Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury could potentially be battling it out in a new stadium in Saudi Arabia on August 14th, according to promoter Eddie Hearn.
A new stadium would be an excellent addition to host this huge heavyweight clash, which Hearn is predicting will be the biggest fight in boxing for 2021.
It’s going to be hard for Joshua-Fury to top the excellent numbers for last Saturday’s Canelo Alvarez vs. Billy Joe Saunders fight event in Arlington, Texas, or the potential September Canelo-Caleb Plant unification.
For UK boxing fans, Joshua vs. Fury will be tops for them, but not necessarily for U.S boxing fans.
Neither of those two heavyweights has done enough in the U.S for them to be seen as can’t miss television the way Canelo’s fights are.
“That is something they’re looking at, yes,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV when asked if the Saudis are considering building a new stadium for Joshua to face Fury.
“August 14th, the temperatures at night are 24 degrees [celsius] at night.
“They’re not horrendous, but something they need to consider at the same time. But they would like to build a new stadium, but that’s down to them,” said Hearn.
The temperatures will be excellent even without a new stadium. 74F is nothing for U.S fans to be attending outdoor events like football games. That’s quite comfortable and not a hardship.
What might be a problem is the cost of travel for U.S and UK boxing fans to make the trip to Saudi Arabia to watch the Joshua – Fury fight live.
That’s where the average diehard fight fan will be hurting, as it’s going to exclude a lot of people that don’t have the means to pay thousands for the trip.
If this was a one-time thing, some fans might be willing to dig deep to make the trip, but the Joshua vs. Fury rematch is also expected to occur outside of the UK in a foreign country.
So whatever fans that want to follow Joshua and Fury around the world this year, they’re going to be paying out the nose for the privilege to see them.
“They want to create something very, very special. Last time they built a stadium for the Andy Ruiz Jr fight in just seven weeks and it held 18,000,” Hearn said to Sky Sports.
“There are no fun and games. It’s ‘them and us.’ AJ will go to war with Fury.
‘He has plans to absolutely demolish him. That’s what I believe he will do. In the meantime, we will go through the build-up, which will be a lot of fun, before the biggest event of 2021.”
With Joshua and Fury fighting twice this year, the loser of these two fights could see their careers plummet. For example, if Fury gets knocked out twice by Joshua, it’s going to be hard for him mentally to pick up the pieces of his shattered self-esteem to carry on.
On the other hand, with the $100 million that both fighters are expected to receive for each fight, it won’t be too bad for Fury. He’ll literally cry all the way to the bank.
Making this kind of money could result in both fighters losing interest in boxing the way boxers tend to do once they make a killing. They drift away from the sport, fighting rarely afterward until they eventually retire.
