Joshua, Fury to earn record-high career paydays

Promoter Frank Warren has revealed that Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua will earn the biggest paydays of their careers when they finally settle their decade-long rivalry on Friday, December 11, at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

The fight, backed by Netflix and Saudi financier Turki Alalshikh, follows years of failed negotiations and false starts, with disputes over the venue and the involvement of UFC boss Dana White, having threatened to derail the bout as recently as this year.

Warren, a promoter of nearly five decades’ standing, told SunSport that the financial rewards on offer ultimately proved too significant for the fight to fall apart again.

“We nearly did it a couple of times, and it just did not happen for various reasons. This time round, I thought we had done it, then with some of the personalities and what was going on with them, I had a couple of hesitations about whether it would happen. But when you look at the money these fellows are getting paid, it is phenomenal money. If they did not do it, they would be crazy. It is huge, huge purses. Massive money. The highest of their careers, I should think the highest of any British fighter’s career, ever,” Warren said.

Netflix had initially pushed for the fight to be staged at Madison Square Garden in New York with the backing of White, but Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, held firm, citing a legally binding contract requiring the bout to take place in the United Kingdom without White’s involvement. Warren subsequently helped secure a deal with the 70,000-seat Principality Stadium, though a later ring-walk time of between one and two in the morning is reportedly being negotiated to accommodate a prime-time audience in the United States.

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“Look at the World Cup just gone. Some of those matches, what time were they on at night from America? We are a global village now, so you have got to try and hopefully accommodate everybody. I know it is going to upset a lot of people, but the only reason this fight is on is because somebody has put up the money for it, and the person who has put the money up for it deserves to get something from it.

They are taking the risk, and they are putting up a phenomenal amount of money,” he said.

Warren, who has long been in Fury’s corner through much of his rivalry with Joshua, maintained that he expects his fighter to prevail.

“I think he will knock him out. Styles make fights. They are older fighters, I think Tyson has worn better than AJ. All Tyson has got to do is watch the fight he had with Daniel Dubois. I said when I made the Dubois fight that he would knock him out, and he nearly knocked him out in the first round with a jab. He is a good finisher, Tyson, he is strong. What Tyson has got is a great chin. You get caught, you go down. All the fighters through history, the Muhammad Alis, the Fraziers, the Foremans, they have all been on the floor. The good ones get up, who can take the shots, they get up and do it. Tyson has done that time and time again,” he said.

The December bout forms part of a busy stretch of boxing before the year ends, with Ben Whittaker facing Conor Wallace on October 3, Daniel Dubois meeting Fabio Wardley in a rematch on October 17, and Canelo Alvarez taking on Christian Mbili on October 31, all ahead of the Fury-Joshua showdown in December.