By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury sent an ominous warning message on Twitter today, reminding the promoters that they have “1 day left” to find a suitable venue for his mega-clash against Anthony Joshua in July.
The deadline for the fight is on Saturday, April 10th, and if the promoters don’t meet it, Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) could walk.
While Eddie Hearn has been sounding optimistic about having several site location options that he’ll be presenting to AJ and Fury this weekend, there’s still a tremendous amount of doubt whether the fight will take place.
Will the $100 million be there for Fury?
The money is obviously the key for Fury, as he’s heard about the $100 million that he and Joshua and supposed to be getting a piece.
If there isn’t enough for Fury to get his $100 million, it may prove to be impossible to get the fight done this time around unless Joshua wants to give him a portion of his purse to bump up his pay to the $100M mark.
If whatever foreign country that is putting up the site fee doesn’t come through with the $200 million for the two fighters, Fury may move on and wait until a later time.
⏰ ⏰ ⏰ pic.twitter.com/5KR1ry1AG2
— TYSON FURY (@Tyson_Fury) April 9, 2021
So there it is. Fury letting Hearn and the other promoters know they got “one day left,” and you can imagine what will happen if they fail to meet the deadline.
John Fury: No money for Tyson vs. Joshua can’t
“They can’t put it on in this climate; there, no money for it,” said John Fury to Boxing Social when asked why the promoters have taken so long to put the Joshua vs. Fury fight together.
“Nobody wants to pay that kind of money with no crowds. Unless we can get a normal way of going on and back to the way it was in 2018, forget all the big fights.
“There will never be a big fight like that ever again. The way we’re living now is uncertain times where nothing is as it seems in this terrible, terrible situation that we’re in.
“Some people would rather be dead. There are people dying every day. The suicide rates are through the roof over it.
“It’s a billion-dollar affair, and who’s got it? The Saudi’s have got it, but they’re not jumping up and down to put it on, are they?” said John Fury.
It sounds like John is already privy to the information on the purses that will be available to Fury and Joshua from the foreign country that puts up the money for the site fee.
That’s the only problem with staging a fight of this magnitude during the pandemic. Without crowds being allowed to attend the fights, it’s tough for one of the foreign entities to shell out $200 million for the Joshua vs. Fury fight during the height of the pandemic.
Timing is wrong for Joshua-Fury
“It can’t be that great of a fight if they’re not jumping up and down to put it on,” continued John about the Joshua vs. Fury fight.
“I’ll tell you why. The timing is wrong for it. We’ll fight anyway, we’d love to fight, but we get paid whether or not.
“If it’s at Wembley, and I don’t, they could ever put it at Wembley. We shouldn’t even be going down the Saudi route at all or the American route.
“And we should do it here because that’s what the fans want [to stage the fight between Joshua and Fury in the UK].
“We got both champions. We’ve never had them before, but we’ve got them now. We’ll never have them again,” John said.
It’s academic that this is the “wrong” time for the Joshua vs. Fury fight to take place. In terms of money and crowds, it’s a terrible time for the fight to take place.
If they waited, the Joshua-Fury clash could take place at Wembley Stadium in front of 100,000 fans, but that can’t happen during the pandemic.
Fury has so many options available to him for nice paydays, particularly the Deontay Wilder fight. He needs a tune-up anyway before fighting Joshua, and that makes it even more enticing to wait until later before fighting AJ.
Churchill would want Joshua-Fury in the UK
“It should be at Wembley or Old Trafford,” said John in lamenting the fact that Joshua-Fury is heading abroad.
“They’re not capitalizing on it, they’re letting people steal it because the English people are greedy.
“They spend billions on football, and yet they can’t put this great event on in the UK. They deserve it.
“It’ll be bigger than the world cup in 66, and yet they don’t want it. It makes me sick, the lot of them. The British empire makes me sick.
“Do you think if Winston Churchill were here, we’d lose it to the foreigners? No chance. He’d want it here at all costs.
“Why can’t they put this great event on here where people can enjoy. Tyson and AJ are British, let them do it here.
“We got the chance to stage the biggest fight in history, and we’re letting it go abroad.
“The British empire should insist it being here. Don’t let these promoters steer the ship because they’ll end up creaming it anyway.
“Let the fans cream it this time. Let them get it, let them enjoy it, and let the promoters take a backward step,” said John about his desire to have Fury fight Joshua in the UK.
It is troubling that the biggest fight in the history of British boxing will likely wind up in a foreign country rather than in front of the home fans in England.
John isn’t happy about it, and you have to wonder if he’s persuading Fury to wait until things turn around with the pandemic before taking the fight with Joshua.
Why it’s smart for Fury to wait until later to stage Joshua fight:
- Greater revenue
- Tune-up needed
- Deontay Wilder trilogy
- Dillian Whyte
It’s an interesting take John Fury has about Winston Churchill. Would Winston make sure that the Joshua-Fury fight took place in the UK if he were still around today?