Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua would be an enormous all-British superfight, and it would also mean the richest purses ever for boxers hailing from domestic shores.
This showdown between the UK’s two top heavyweights has been in the works for years, and now it appears we once again have a legitimate path to how it happens.
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Fury (34-0-1) has that massive unification match vs Oleksandr Usyk on February 17 and AJ locks horns with Francis Ngannou on March 8. The Saudis injecting massive sums of money into the sport want the winners of those fights to then meet for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world.
So if the dream match finally happens, after highly-publicised false starts back in 2021 and 2022, how much would the two men earn? According to Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn, the answer is eye-watering.
How much would Fury and Joshua make?
Talking on the Sky Bet ‘Overlap’ late last year, he explained: “You’re probably making definitely double the money to stage the fight out there. We were the first ones to do a fight in Saudi, with Ruiz [vs Joshua in December 2019]. I got loads of stick.
“I said listen, I represent the fighter, you think when I go and have a conversation with a fighter and I say ‘it’s £20m for Wembley and £60m for Saudi’, what do you think?
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“I don’t really have a say in the matter, but by the way, I’m choosing Saudi as well. This is the fight game, they’re prizefighters, they’re not going for 18 holes of golf.”
Hearn, who was speaking before Deontay Wilder’s shock loss to Joseph Parker in December, added: “They’ll make over £100m each. If Fury beats Usyk and AJ beats Wilder, they’ll make over £100m each. At that level, that’s when it starts to become easy.”
Will Fury vs Joshua happen?
It’s pretty simple, once again. We are at the semi-final stage here – if Fury defeats Usyk and Joshua overcomes Ngannou, all signs point to them meeting later in 2024 or in early 2025.
Current world heavyweight champions
The belt situation in heavyweight boxing is always complicated, and it absolutely is right now.
Fury is the WBC and lineal champion, while Usyk is the IBF, WBA, WBO and Ring magazine king.
Joshua for his part is on the outside looking in, having lost his titles to Usyk in their first fight in London in 2021. He failed to regain them in a rematch in Saudi in 2022.
