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Mark KriegelESPN
After months of arduous negotiations between competing promoters and rival champions, the two-fight contract between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua to unify the heavyweight titles was finally signed.
“We would like to have a website agreement confirmed next month,” said Eddie Hearn, managing director of Matchroom Sport, Joshua’s promoter. “The difficult part is always getting everyone to put the pen on paper. But that was a big effort on all sides to overcome that. You had rival promoters, rival networks and rival fighters.”
Not to mention rival egos, always a factor in boxing. The final signing came on Saturday, in a service agreement with signers believed to include Fury and Joshua; Joshua’s promoter, Matchroom Boxing; American Fury promoter, Top Rank; English Fury prosecutor, Queensbury; and Fury’s management company, MTK based in Dubai.
With the terms of the agreement now agreed, directors can request offers from potential sites.
“I actually feel like we did the hard part,” said Hearn. “Speaking for me, Anthony and his team in management 258 [258 MGT], I know how hard we worked in the last few months and I feel that this fight is so big that it is not difficult to sell it. We have already obtained approaches from eight or nine sites. The offers came from several countries in the Middle East, Asia, Eastern Europe and America. “
Smart money, however, remains in the Middle East, where Hearn secured a website fee in excess of $ 40 million to promote Joshua’s 2019 rematch with Andy Ruiz in Saudi Arabia. The need for a huge website fee is particularly acute with seat restrictions and companies still recovering from COVID, as Middle Eastern countries are seeking less attendance than favorable advertising.
“This is boxing’s biggest fight and one of the biggest sporting events in the world,” said Hearn. “It will be a great victory for a country that wants to show itself.”
As ESPN previously reported, the contract provides for a 50-50 split in the first fight and 60-40 in the rematch, with the winner taking the majority. The plan is for the two fights to take place in 2021 – the first in June or July, the rematch, ideally, taking place in November or December. But news of the deal comes just days after Fury expressed frustration at the negotiations that began in January, telling IFL-TV that he had stopped training for Joshua and was drinking “up to 12 liters a day”.
“You never really know with Tyson,” said Hearn. “It could be mind games. He could be having a bad day. He could be a little upset. Or he could be kidding.
“One of the fascinations about this fight will be the construction, because they are two totally different characters, two totally different personalities,” said Hearn. “Mind games will be on another level for this fight. Tyson is very good at this. Anthony is excited about it … He is so pumped, so focused, that he hasn’t stopped training since the [Kubrat] Pulev fight [in December]. He’s like a caged lion. The buildup is going to be epic. “