Anthony Joshua’s promoter has said “AJ” left “substantial millions” on the table to box Tyson Fury in the UK, instead of in the US.
Thursday brought the long-awaited news that Joshua and Fury will square off in Cardiff on 11 December, in a fight almost a decade in the making.
It will be a battle of former world heavyweight champions, and potentially the biggest fight in British boxing history – playing out on home soil, despite efforts to take it to the US.
Speaking to iFL TV on Thursday, Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn said of other figures in negotiations: “I keep saying we won the race... Basically, they downed tools about 10 days ago, they gave up on trying to bring the fight [to the US].
They did everything they could to bring this fight to America. When I told them, ‘I won’t tell you again, it ain’t happening,’ they gave up. But it’s been very quiet for a week or 10 days, and you start to think, ‘What’s going on?’
“Then I had a call last night from [Saudi official] Dr Rakan to say ‘tomorrow is the day’, and it was hard to sleep last night obviously. It was just an amazing moment to know we got it over the line.
“We signed a contract for a fight in the UK. [Combat-sports company] TKO started getting involved in the Netflix deal. [Saudi adviser] Turki Alalshikh, Netflix, they all wanted to do the fight at Madison Square Garden [in New York City]. Everybody wanted the fight in America.
“They came to us and said, ‘Look, how can we...?’ We started talking, ‘What if we did this? This?’ But basically, AJ just weren’t really up for it. He left substantial millions on the table to stay in the UK and do the fight.”
Hearn continued: “What happened was, everybody started to see through the bulls*** and basically see that we were the only ones trying to bring the fight to the UK. The support, the messages coming in just made [Joshua] think even more: ‘Yeah, let’s keep it here.’
“That momentum means a lot to him, I feel like the public really got behind his decision – and so they should as well. We had to go in there and say ‘no’ repeatedly [...] ‘We don’t want to negotiate anymore. Can we just do what we signed for?’”
One point of contention for Hearn is whether or not Dana White will be involved. The rival promoter, who runs the UFC, launched the controversial Zuffa Boxing this year. He did so alongside Alalshikh, and he has claimed numerous times that he will be involved with Fury vs Joshua.
“Dana White told everybody he’s promoting the show, he’s bringing the fight to America, he knows where the venue is,” Hearn said. “Obviously we know that didn’t happen. Dana White cannot be involved in this fight promotionally; Netflix clearly didn’t get the memo.
“You see, no one talks to each other. I speak to [Saudi company] Sela and Turki: ‘No, Dana White is not involved in the fight. You’ve got a contract that says that. He won’t be at the presser.’ And then Netflix say [on Thursday]: ‘Oh yes, the fight’s in conjunction with Dana White.’
“Now we have to go through that process and deal with them. It’s a little bit annoying to be honest with you, but as I’ve shown through the UK battle that we won: we stand by our contracts, and he cannot be involved in the fight.
“When I saw the press release, I just couldn’t stop p***ing myself. It was like: you really got them to include your name, you silly, soppy t**? It’s so petty to the point where... You’ve lost, mate, you’ve lost. Give it up, son.”
