Even before the latest lockdown, there was no guarantee the massive all-British heavyweight unification showdown between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua would take place on British soil, as Eddie Hearn has said.
Now, in light of the restrictions and almost no chance of the kind of enormous crowd needed to generate the finances to cover the costs of the fight, it is almost a given that the fight will take place abroad.
Hearn spoke with Sportsmail, and the promoter said, “Now it is far, far more likely that it will be abroad.” Reportedly, there are a number of countries bidding to host the fight, including current front runner Saudi Arabia in the Middle East and also Singapore and China. Hearn is optimistic the fight – the biggest in British boxing history – could be “tied up in the next fortnight.”
“Even before this current situation, there was no guarantee that we would do the first fight in the UK because it was almost impossible that we would get clearance to have, say, 90,000 at Wembley in late May,” Hearn said.
“Now it is far, far more likely that it will be abroad. There have been a lot of conversations between both sides in the past couple of weeks, and we’re optimistic that we can tie stuff up in the next fortnight.”
As fans know, there will be two fights between Joshua and Fury. The two giants have agreed to a 50/50 split of the purse for fight-one, with the winner to get a larger percentage of 60/40 in the rematch.
Both fighters want the fight; now, all that needs to be worked out is the location of the fight, along with TV issues – the two rival champions fighting on different platforms.
It is a real shame this fight will not take place in the UK, but with both men supposedly set to be paid something like a whopping, great £100 million each, there is no way that kind of money would be generated without a huge, huge live gate.
The most important thing is we get to see the fight. British boxing history will be made somewhere other than Great Britain. Again, Saudi Arabia is the current favorite to land the mega fight.