By Charles Brun: The rumored purses have been revealed for the Anthony Joshua – Deontay Wilder & Tyson Fury – Oleksandr Usyk card in December in Saudi Arabia.
Simon Jordan has leaked the purses, and it’s unclear how he got knowledge of how much the fighters are going to make.
What’s a bit of a shock is that WBC heavyweight champion Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) will be getting the most loot by far with him getting £90million [$113M], while Joshua, who some would argue is by far the biggest star on the card, is receiving a paltry £30million [$38M].
Why the Saudis would want to give Fury the most money is difficult to imagine. They’ve got to know that Joshua is the more marketable fighter of the two, and they’re not going to appease Fury because he could drag his feet & have a tantrum.
Moreover, it’s unimportant that Fury holds the WBC strap because belts have lost meaning in this era. Fans are more into popular fighters that entertain with exciting fighting styles and have a large social media presence.
The yardstick for measuring who the more popular fighter is between Joshua and Fury is based on their social media followers.
Instagram followers:
- 16M – Anthony
- 6M – Tyson Fury
Twitter followers:
- 3.4M – Anthony Joshua
- 2.2M – Tyson Fury
So there it is. Joshua is more popular than Fury. Hence, he should get most of the dough for the December card in Saudi, and he likely will.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn reacted to the leaked figures by posting a launching emoji on Twitter, which suggests that Simon Jordan doesn’t have a clue with his leaked purse information.
Usyk is expected to make more than Joshua, with him getting £50million [$63M], while Deontay is getting £30million [$38M].
The rumored purses would be believable if Joshua received the $113 million and Fury $38 million because he’s the bigger star. It doesn’t matter that Fury holds a title.
That belt that Fury holds might as well be a trinket because it doesn’t translate into popularity, and you can argue Tyson has lost a lot of fans due to his failure to negotiate fights with Joshua & Usyk.
Whatever popularity Fury had after his win over Wilder in 2021, he’s lost it by fighting two fluff journeymen, Dillian Whyte & Derek Chisor, and coming up empty with his negotiations with Joshua and Usyk.
😂
— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) May 4, 2023