By Jake Tiernan: Eddie Hearn states that the Saudis are interested in staging a massive card in December with Anthony Joshua vs. Deontay Wilder & Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk on the same night.
Hearn says the deal for the two fights would be valued at “$400 million” in the purses for Joshua-Wilder & Fury-Usyk.
It’s unclear which fight of the two would be in the main event, but predictably, Fury could be a stick in the mud, preventing the two-fight deal from going ahead if his match with Usyk isn’t the headliner.
It’ll be interesting to see if the deal falls apart due to Fury pricing himself out or insisting that his fight with Usyk, arguably a lesser fight of the two, be the main event.
“There’s been no negotiations for that fight. There’s been a mention of it in terms of something we’d like to look at,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV when asked if there’s any truth to what Malik Scott said of negotiations going on for a fight in December in Saudi Arabia between Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder.
“For AJ, his big fight will be in the Middle East, and it will come in December, and that will be Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder. That’s what we’re planning. I will be going out next week to meet people to discuss AJ’a fight in December.
“There has definitely been conversations that have taken place where people would like to host Fury against Usyk and AJ against Wilder on the same night. It will cost a lot of money, but it would be our pick, and we will have those conversations. Our focus is to get that big mega-fight in December over the line.
“There is no official decision in terms of whether AJ will fight in July. Some of that may come around the deal or the decision or the completion of that fight in December. I would quite like to see him fight. I think he would like to fight in July, but right now, he’s not in camp for a July fight.
“We’re focusing on getting the December fight over the line, which is a fight of huge proportion, and then we’ll make a decision on the July fight in the coming weeks.
“I think people involved in the December fight will not want him to fight in July because, obviously, it’s a fight of such huge proportion that you wouldn’t want to take the risk of committing the money with the possibility of defeat, injury or whatever,” said Hearn about Joshua.
