By Barry Holbrook: Eddie Hearn predicts the Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury mega-fight will do approximately 3 million pay-per-view buys in their first of two heavyweight clashes this summer at a soon-to-be-announced venue.
Hearn maintains that the Joshua-Fury fight is the biggest match-up of all time, and there will never be anything like it.
Obviously, he might be going a tad bit overboard with that comment, but it’s clearly the biggest fight the sport has seen since the Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Manny Pacquiao clash in 2015.
The three million buys that Hearn is predicting is greater than the 2.5 million buys that Fury’s promoter Frank Warren predicts the fight will bring in, but it shows how huge this match-up is for the sport.
Internet Piracy could dampen down the numbers that Hearn and Warren predict for the Joshua vs. Joshua fight. Whatever numbers that Hearn predicts, they may be decreased due to the high number of steams available on the night of the fight.
With the many illegal streams that will be up on the night of the fight, many boxing fans, particularly ones who can’t afford the price tag on the fight, will choose not to pay.
Hearn predicts 3 million buys for Joshua vs. Fury
“More,” said Hearn to iFL TV when told that Frank Warren is predicting 2 1/2 million pay-per-view buys for Joshua vs. Fury. “I believe it does three million buys.
“You’re never going to get a fight like this again. This is the biggest fight in British boxing history. It’s one of the biggest fights of all time in boxing.
“Two British world heavyweight champions for the undisputed world heavyweight championship, and the biggest sporting event of the year.
“The whole world will stop to watch this fight, and that’s one of the reasons why we haven’t given up.
“When AJ came into the office, I said, and he said, ‘Undisputed heavyweight championship,’ and that is the aim.
“We’re doing this, he’s knocking Tyson Fury out, and he’s coming the undisputed heavyweight champion in the biggest sporting event in 2021 in a fight that will be watched by the entire world,” said Hearn.
In a perfect world, 3 million PPV buys sound reasonable for a mega-clash between Joshua and Fury, but we see far less than that figure given the high number of illegal streams.
It’s unclear how many millions of buys will be lost due to piracy. It’s reasonable to assume that there could be huge numbers of people who will choose to watch the Joshua-Fury fight illegally, particularly if the cost is prohibitive given the high unemployment numbers that exist worldwide.
Allegiant Stadium WON’T be staging Joshua – Fury
“That stadium is under consideration,” said Hearn when asked if the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas is under consideration for Joshua vs. Fury. “What I will tell you is, we have an offer that we are happy with.
“We have an offer that both fighters and both teams accept. So we are now closing that contract with that site.
“Allegiant is one of the sites that are in play, but the offer that we have that both fighters and teams accept is not Allegiant, but it will be revealed shortly. We have the site deal now, and everyone is happy.
“Now it’s just to finalize the deal and make sure everyone is happy with that. It’s a summer fight. I think I’m the only one that could pull it off. The build-up will be unbelievable.
“This is the fight for boxing. No one wants another fight. We accept the offer that was given to us, and we just need to finalize it as far as the paperwork, and we’re good to go,” said Hearn.
It’s bad for Las Vegas that the Joshua-Fury fight won’t be taking place at Allegiant Stadium, but it was never thought it would end up there. Saudi Arabia is still viewed as the likely location.
“You’ll have to see if Fury will want a rematch [after he loses to Joshua],” said Hearn. “Maybe he’ll walk away from the sport after he gets stopped,” said Hearn.