By Sam Volz: Tyson Fury’s promoters will be taking a considerable risk if they insist on staging the Oleksandr Usyk fight at Wembley Stadium in London rather than in Saudi Arabia on April 29th.
Both fighters will want huge guaranteed purses, and unfortunately, the ticket sales and the pay-per-view buys may not cover the money Fury & Usyk will expect to be paid.
There’s no way the promoters for the Fury-Usyk can guarantee the kind of money that they’ll want to get because they have no idea what kind of numbers the fight will bring in.
The Saudis have the money to blow, so there’s no issue with the purses like there would be if they stage the fight in London.
It makes no sense at all to stage the in the UK because it’s too much of a risk, and neither of these guys is going to be happy if their purses are much smaller than what they would have gotten if they’d staged the fight in Saudi Arabia.
Fury’s promoters could take a bath in this one and lose millions if the promotion fails to bring in the revenue to cover the huge purses.
Moreover, Usyk isn’t going to want to gamble on a tiny guaranteed purse, and the rest depends on the PPV upside because it may not bring in big enough numbers to surpass what he would have received if the fight with Fury were staged in Saudi Arabia.
According to the Daily Mail, the stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, won’t be done in time for the April 29th for Fury-Usyk to take place. In that case, Fury’s promoters need to delay the fight until the stadium is completed because April 29th isn’t going to work.
If it needs to be delayed two or three months, so be it. At least they won’t lose money, and both fighters will agree to the purses.
Promoters could lose money on Fury vs. Usyk
“This doesn’t surprise me at all. Both of these fighters agreed to the terms and the money when the fight looked like it was going to head to Saudi Arabia,” said Ade Oladipo about the Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk fight, which had been tentatively scheduled for April 29th.
“It would have been a big site fee, and the money would have been really, really good. Now the biggest problem with it happening here is that in Saudi Arabia, it would have been a 50-50 split. It’s a neutral site, and it’s a neutral venue for both men.
“Over here, obviously, this is the home of Tyson Fury; he’s going to want more money. This goes a bit back to the Deontay Wilder thing. Obviously, in Saudi Arabia, it’s guaranteed. You’ve got guarantees. You’re going to get this; you’re going to get that.
“They might get an upside on pay-per-view, but I think the site feel would be it. Over here, there are no guarantees. How can you guarantee someone x-amount of money if you don’t know how much money is coming in?
“I guess with Tyson Fury; there’s kind of an element where we kind of do know because you know what kind of fees are going to come in from bums on seats, whether it be Wembley or Tottenham because he does good numbers,” said Oladipo.
How do you guarantee purses?
“Pay-per-view is where the big money is. The gate receipts that ain’t going to cut it,” Oladipo continued about the problems with staging Fury vs. Usyk at Wembley Stadium. “This isn’t like gate receipts in America. It ain’t going to cut it over here; even if it’s 90,000, it’s not going to do it.
“So you almost need guarantees on the pay-per-view. I don’t believe, and this is just me saying it, I don’t believe the numbers that are floating around or put out there for Tyson Fury. I heard something about half a million for [Dereck] Chisora. I don’t believe that at all.
“No way. No one really wanted that fight. I remember that fight was priced at 26.95. There’s no way that done a half million. No. This isn’t me discrediting Tyson Fury. Trust me; it isn’t because if a number comes out, I’m quite positive when it comes to Tyson Fury because I think he’s now a superstar.
“Do I think he’s a superstar that can sell a half million pay-per-view buys for Chisora? No. I simply don’t. It’s a fight that no one asked for, and it’s a fight that no one was screaming about, and all of a sudden, people are going to press ‘pay.’ No, I don’t believe so.
“I do wonder if there’s an issue. I do remember hearing Fury-Whyte did around 200,000. Look, I think Fury-Usyk does way more than both of those. I think Fury-Usyk could do way more than 200.
“I think Fury-Usyk could do a half million, but how do you guarantee both men the number that they want when you’re not quite sure about the number that’s going to come in? It’s quite difficult.
“It’s almost like if you guarantee it, someone could be taking a big hit there.”
Tyson Fury is about money
“There’s the argument about who takes the split. I mean, this is, again, Tyson Fury’s backyard,” Oladipo said. “Is Tyson Fury wanting 70-30? Is he wanting 80-20? I’m not quite sure.
“Tyson Fury will always tell you that he’s not about his money and he just wants to fight. It’s about his money, people. He’s about his money. So, it’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out.
“I don’t like the line about, ‘If it happens at all.’ That’s a line that I don’t want to hear because as much as I’m kind of 50-50 with it, whether or not this fight does happen, this is my fight of the year. This is the one. This is it.
“There’s no fight that can be made that has my attention more than Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk. It’s undisputed. It’s the marquee of boxing. Both men are unbeaten. One of the best cruiserweights if not the best cruiserweight of all time.
“Tyson Fury, a lot of people consider one of the best heavyweights of all time. The winner becomes an all time great if not already. It’s a fight that I want to see the most, but I do think there’s a number of hurdles that need to be overcome. A number of hurdles. We just have to wait and see how this one plays out,” said Oladipo.