By Charles Brun: It didn’t take long for Tyson Fury’s promoter Bob Arum to react to Anthony Joshua’s boasts of bringing in larger crowds than ‘The Gypsy King.’
Arum says that Joshua’s large crowds of 70,000+ fans don’t bring in the same revenue as Fury’s recent fights against Deontay Wilder, which had a gate over $17 million.
IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Joshua has started name-dropping Fury’s name with a little over a week to go before his defense against Kubrat Pulev on December 12th.
It appears that Joshua’s constant talking about Fury is a calculated move to get boxing fans more interested in his fight against Pulev.
Joshua is using one of the oldest tricks in the book to try and pump up interest in his match against the 39-year-old Pulev.
You can argue without Joshua’s name dropping Fury’s name in every interview; boxing fans wouldn’t even know he’s fighting next week against Pulev.
Fury brings in more gate revenue
“There are crowds, and there’s money,” Arum said to IFL TV in reacting to Joshua saying that Fury doesn’t bring in big crowds like him.
“With all due respect to the 80 or 90,000 people, I think it’s closer to 70 [thousand] that have watched his [Joshua] fights, whether it’s Cardiff, and I was there when he fought Joseph Parker.
“Yeah, there are big crowds, but look at the gate revenue. Tyson Fury and Wilder a the MGM [in Las Vegas] in February did a gate of more than 17 million dollars, and Joshua hasn’t come close to a gate of that magnitude.
“If I charge five pounds a seat for a fight against you, I could probably get 100,000 people.
“It all depends on how much you charge for a ticket. Again, Joshua hasn’t come close to the gate revenue that Fury did with Wilder in Las Vegas,” said Arum.
It’s too bad Joshua vs. Pulev will only have 1000 fans in attendance next week in their fight at the Wembley Arena in London, England. That’s got to hurt AJ and Matchroom Boxing that there won’t be 70,000+ fans.
We’ll have to see if the ticket prices are hiked when fans are allowed back in large numbers to sporting events in the UK.
Will the prices be the same for Joshua’s future fights as they’ve been in the past, or will we see a huge spike with them being pushed upwards?
Many fans aren’t happy about the ticket prices for Joshua vs. Pulev on December 12th. It’ll be interesting to see if those prices will stay that way for Joshua’s future fights after the pandemic ends and fans are allowed back.