Sports

Joshua, Fury Sign Two-Fight Heavyweight Unification Deal

Published

5 years ago

March 16, 2021

(COMBO) This combination of pictures created on December 14, 2020, shows Boxer Tyson Fury (L) during a press conference in Los Angeles, California on January 25, 2020, and British heavyweight boxer Anthony Joshua during a press conference in Ad Diriyah, a Unesco-listed heritage site, outside Riyadh, on December 4, 2019. (Photos by RINGO CHIU and FAYEZ NURELDINE / AFP)

Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury have signed a deal for two all-British world heavyweight title unification fights, Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn said on Monday.

Confirming the agreement, Hearn told ESPN: “The hard part is always getting everybody to put pen to paper.

“But this was a major effort from all parties to get this over the line. You had rival promoters, rival networks and rival fighters.”

Hearn said a venue for the fights, in which Joshua’s WBA, IBF, and WBO titles and Fury’s WBC belt will be on the line, is set to be confirmed: “within the next month.”

According to reports, Saudi Arabia, where Joshua won a rematch against Andy Ruiz Jr in December 2019, is the frontrunner to host both fights.

But Hearn told ESPN he “already had approaches from eight or nine sites” across the Middle East, Asia, Eastern Europe, and America.

“We’d like to get a site deal confirmed in the next month,” he said.

Both Joshua, 31, and Fury, 32, are expected to earn £100 million ($139 million) each, with the purse split 50-50 for the first fight and 60-40 for the rematch in favour of the defending champion.

Since avenging a shock defeat to Ruiz, Joshua has defended his WBA, IBF, and WBO titles against Kubrat Pulev in London in December.

Fury has not fought for more than a year since defeating Deontay Wilder in February 2020 to claim the WBC title.

AFP