By Matt Lieberman: Singapore has emerged as one possible destination for the unification fight between British heavyweight Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury, according to Eddie Hearn. It’s still not yet decided, however.
Hearn expects to have the location and broadcasting deal to be done in the next two weeks.
Hearn is looking for a foreign country to stage the mammoth heavyweight clash between IBF/WBA/WBO champion Joshua (24-0, 22 KOs) and WBC champion Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs).
Possible location for Joshua – Fury:
- Singapore
- Middle East [Qatar, Dubai and Saudi Arabia]
- China
Hearn told the Sportsmail on Wednesday that Singapore is now one of the options for Joshua to battle the unbeaten Fury.
Joshua – Fury to make a truckload of money
They need a country that has the financial means to pay a massive site fee to cover the purses for Joshua and Fury, which are said to be £100m+ each.
With the two heavyweights to make that kind of money, it’s no wonder why they’re both ignoring their preliminary fights against Oleksandr Usyk and Deontay Wilder. It’s not about sports, it’s about money at this point.
“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,” said Eddie Hearn to Mail Sport.
‘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 up stuff in the next fortnight,” said Hearn about the Joshua vs. Fury clash.
Joshua is supposed to be making a defense against his WBO mandatory Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs), but he wants him to step aside. It’s understandable why Usyk has no desire to step aside because he would need to wait for Joshua to face Fury twice, not just once.
Given that Usyk has already been waiting for his mandated title shot since 2018, it’s easy to see why he’s not willing to step aside this time. He already stepped aside for Joshua to face Andy Ruiz Jr in a rematch, and then face Kubrat Pulev.
Joshua vs. Fury first fight split = 50-50
The purse split for the first Fury vs. Joshua fight will be an even 50-50, and from there, the winner will get a 60-40 split in the second match.
British boxing fans were hoping that Joshua – Fury mega-fight would be staged in the UK’s home territory, but that was never an option. With the lockdown from the pandemic, there’s no boxing possible in the country.
More importantly, the money isn’t there to stage the fight to cover the huge purse requirements for Joshua and Fury. Although they care about the fans, they don’t want to walk away from making $100+ million each.
As for Fury, we still don’t know what will happen with his mediation process with former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder.
Fury is still under contract for a third fight with Wilder, and he could be walking into a lot of trouble if he attempts to ignore his commitment. That’s something that Hearn didn’t touch on today, but there’s a genuine possibility that Fury may need to face Wilder next rather than Joshua.
In Hearn’s urgent rush to try and get the Joshua vs. Fury fight done, he could be wasting his time given that the situation with Wilder hasn’t been decided.
It’s one thing for Joshua to make an end-run around his mandatory requirements to defend his WBO title against Usyk. Still, it’s a different story for Fury to walk away from his contractual rematch with Wilder.