Joshua, Fury Sign Heavyweight Unification Deal
On Monday, Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn announced that Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury had agreed to two all-British world heavyweight title unification matches.
Confirming the agreement, Hearn told ESPN: “The hard part is always getting everybody to put pen to paper.
“But this was a major effort from all parties to get this over the line. You had rival promoters, rival networks, and rival fighters.”
Hearn said a venue for the fights, in which Joshua’s WBA, IBF, and WBO titles and Fury’s WBC belt will be on the line, is set to be confirmed: “within the next month.”
According to sources, Saudi Arabia is the favorite to host both fights after Joshua won a rematch against Andy Ruiz Jr in December 2019.
Hearn, on the other hand, told ESPN that he’d already received “approaches from eight or nine places” in the Middle East, Asia, Eastern Europe, and the United States.
“We’d like to get a site deal confirmed in the next month,” he said.
Both Joshua, 31, and Fury, 32, are expected to earn £100 million ($139 million) each, with the purse split 50-50 for the first fight and 60-40 for the rematch in favour of the defending champion.
Since avenging a shock defeat to Ruiz, Joshua has defended his WBA, IBF, and WBO titles against Kubrat Pulev in London in December.
Fury has not fought for more than a year since defeating Deontay Wilder in February 2020 to claim the WBC title.
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