Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua will be paid record purses for heavyweights when they fight for all the titles in their division this summer.
According to an ESPN.com report posted Saturday afternoon, the British heavyweights will split most of a site fee that’ll exceed $150 million. The deal isn’t finalized, but Fury and Joshua are expected to make approximately $75 million apiece for their highly anticipated showdown.
Whatever’s left from this enormous site fee will be used to pay for expenses and undercard fights.
The site fee for Joshua’s rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr. reportedly was $60 million. Joshua out-boxed Ruiz and won a unanimous decision to take back his IBF, IBO, WBA and WBO titles in their 12-round rematch in December 2019 in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.
Eddie Hearn, whose company promotes Joshua, told IFL TV on Friday that Fury and Joshua have agreed to the site deal. Hearn wouldn’t discuss the date or the site of their fight, but Bob Arum, Fury’s co-promoter, told BoxingScene.com on Monday that the biggest fight in British boxing history will take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The dates under consideration are believed to be July 24, July 31 and August 7.
Jeddah has a population of almost 4 million and is the second-largest city in Saudi Arabia.
Two other Brits, Callum Smith and George Groves, fought in Jeddah for Groves’ WBA super middleweight title in September 2018. Smith stopped Groves in the seventh round of the final of the World Boxing Super Series’ 168-pound tournament.
Fury, 32, and Joshua, 31, have agreed to fight twice. Neither the site nor the time frame for their rematch has been determined.
When the 6-feet-9, 270-pound Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) and the 6-feet-6, 245-pound Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs) meet this summer, they’ll fight Joshua’s four titles and the WBC belt Fury won from previously undefeated Deontay Wilder 14 months ago in Las Vegas.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.