By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn says he may fly to Panama to make a purse bid for the title fight between IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and Tyson Fury if the two fighters are unable to negotiate the fight.
They have until Monday to come to an agreement. If not, then it’ll go to a purse bid where the highest bidder can put on the fight. Hearn doesn’t promoter either fighter, but he’d like to stage it in the UK, where it would be a huge fight. Hearn would be doing Fury a big favor if he won the purse bid and then stuck the fight at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
Instead of Wladimir being able to stage the fight in Germany or some other place in Europe, Hearn could put it in the UK, and Wladimir would have to deal with 20,000 screaming Fury fans for a 12 round bout. That wouldn’t be a fun thing for Wladimir unless he shut the fans up by knocking Fury out early.
It further wouldn’t be a great deal for Wladimir, because he could stage the same fight in Germany in 50,000+ football stadium. If Hearn wins the purse bid, it would mean a smaller venue and possibly less of a crowd.
“We’d be looking to stay that fight in the UK,” Hearn said to Skysports.com. “Everybody will turn up [at the purse bid] with an envelope and the governing body will read out the bids. Whoever pays the most gets the fight. We’d look at September or October. We’ll have the paperwork ready to go.”
Hearn has Sky Box Office on his side to televise the fight in the UK, but Hearn would have to come up with some fairly huge money to win the purse bid because K2 Promotions is going to make a big offer, and some other promoters. If any of the Russian promoters get involved, it may prove impossible for Hearn to win the purse bid. They have deep pockets and can come up with a lot of money to win the bid.
It could be a real buzzkill for the UK fans to see the Klitschko-Fury fight live because Fury has been matched so carefully during his career, and he’s not been in with anyone even close to being as powerful and as talented as the 6’6” Wladimir. When you’re still fighting guys like Joey Abell, Christian Hammer and Dereck Chisora at this point in your career, then it tells you that Fury has little chance of beating a puncher like Wladimir.
I think Hearn realizes this, but I think he sees it more as a money-making fight regardless of the outcome. But Hearn also wants to match Fury against his fighter Anthony Joshua in the near future, so it helps Hearn if Fury can beat Wladimir so that he’s got most of the world titles in his possession for a fight against Joshua in the near future.
“Tyson fury is a quality young fighter but he hasn’t been in with the quality of Klitschko,” Hearn said. “I hope Fury wins. It would open the door for huge fights in the division against Anthony Joshua.”
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