Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua will be the biggest fight in British boxing history when it happens, hopefully the summer of 2021, but what will the price be for the pay-per-view?
Two British world heavyweight champions likely locking horns to decide who is the undisputed king of boxing’s marquee weight class. While the action inside the ropes will be must-see, there are fascinating sub-plots taking place outside the ring as well.
The venue for the eagerly-awaited match will be a political hot potato. Will it be the UK, as every fight fan here wants? Or will another country blow the likes of Wembley Stadium out of the water with a massive site fee offer? Saudi Arabia remember hosted Joshua’s win over Andy Ruiz Jr in their December 2019 rematch.
As for the other massive topic of conversation, it surrounds how much it will cost fans to watch the bout on TV. The likelihood is it will be a joint pay-per-view promotion with both Sky Sports Box Office (Joshua) and BT Sport Box Office (Fury) showing the fight.
Meanwhile in the United States Fury has an exclusive deal with ESPN while Joshua has a matching rights agreement with DAZN. It is again likely they will share the rights.
As for the actual price point itself, that is something which has boxing Twitter on fire. Joshua’s last fight (against Ruiz in Saudi) retailed at £24.95. And his upcoming title defence against Kubrat Pulev on December 12 will be exactly the same.
So one would imagine that would be the absolute basement for a Fury vs Joshua fight, it is just a question of how much higher the bar will go.
Some unconfirmed reports in the summer suggested the price could be as high as £49.95 (remember some bouts in the US retail for up to $99.95 on PPV). It appears they were wide of the mark.
Fury vs Joshua price: How much will PPV cost?
Eddie Hearn, whose Matchroom Boxing promotes Joshua, believes a fair price would be much lower than that.
He told IFL TV: “I would think that if the AJ fights moving forwards are £24.95 – Sky’s decision or whoever else is broadcasting the fight with Sky – and I would think £29.95 would be the price point for that fight.”
Hearn also defended the price of the Joshua vs Pulev pay-per-view, citing among other things the lack of any gate revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The bout initially had been set to take place in front of around 70,000 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
“But once again despite not having 70,000 ticket revenue for the fight, we are not increasing the price of AJ’s next pay-per-view, we are keeping it the same as his last fight.”
Hearn then added: “Next weekend if you really want, you can spend 20 quid to watch an exhibition with Mike Tyson and Roy Jones, or the week after you can spend a touch more to watch the biggest star in heavyweight boxing and a massive undercard close out the year before he fights for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world.”
