Tyson Fury’s signed contract to fight fellow two-division heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua does not stipulate that the bout must occur at a U.K. venue, BoxingScene has learned.
While that fact does not mean the long-anticipated superfight will defy common sense and take place at an NFL stadium in the U.S. or somewhere else outside the U.K., it does indicate there could be a need for some renegotiation to firm up the bout’s loose ends.
Told of the wiggle room existing in Fury’s contract, Joshua promoter Eddie Hearn said, “I don’t know what [Fury] says about the venue. I just know what ours says: That, exclusively, the fight must take place in the U.K.”
Hearn clarified that the fight contracts exist between Saudi Arabia boxing financier Turki Alalshikh, the nation’s events planner Sela, and Fury, for two tune-up bouts (the next coming August 1 in Dublin) and then the Joshua bout. For Joshua, his July 25 tune-up and then the Fury bout.
Both fighters, Hearn said, have signed contracts stipulating that Hearn and England’s Frank Warren are the promoters of record for their clash, and that the new Zuffa Boxing promotion headed by UFC CEO/President Dana White and WWE President Nick Khan are excluded from involvement.
With Alalshikh owning 60% of Zuffa Boxing, White last week told reporters he will be promoting the bout and hinted it might not be going to an expected U.K. destination.
Hearn speculates Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium could be a target while two boxing officials told BoxingScene this week that Alalshikh proposed SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles – which is hosting the World Cup and 2027 Super Bowl – as a venue that could be in play.
“There’s always been differences [in the Joshua and Fury contracts] because they’re individual contracts,” Hearn said Friday at Desert Diamond Arena after the public weigh-in for his bantamweight title fight pitting two-division champion Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez (117.6lbs) and WBA champion Antonio Vargas (117.6lbs).
“If Turki Alalshikh wants to hold the [Joshua-Fury] fight in another country, that’s not necessarily a problem, but contractually he cannot do that. So we’d have to go through a new process, start a new negotiation and make sure that’s good with Anthony Joshua. As I’ve said before, [Alalshikh] pays the bills.
“At the same time, we signed up for the bout with the importance of it being in the U.K., and because that’s where we expect the fight to happen.”
Hearn emphasized that while Alalshikh wields tremendous power, he is not free to designate White/Zuffa Boxing as the event’s promoter, regardless of what White is saying publicly.
“Turki doesn’t have to take over the fight. Turki is the fight,” Hearn said. “But specifically in the contract it says Dana White, Zuffa cannot have any promotional involvement in the show. Dana doesn’t know about the contract for the show that we signed and negotiated.
“What he’s done is probably had a conversation with Turki, saying, ‘Do the fight in Vegas… .’ Unfortunately for those guys, they can’t do that without clearing it with us.
“We don’t rule that out, but Zuffa’s failing really bad at the moment with the product and they’re trying to latch onto this. Someone said to me, ‘why is Dana White doubling down on this [notion that he will promote Joshua-Fury?]’ I said, ‘What do you expect him to do? Backtrack and apologize?’ So now he’ll be trying to get his claws in to pretend, ‘I helped with the venue, I did all this.’
“The contract’s the contract. He won’t have any promotional involvement.”
Hearn repeated the major player in staging the bout is Alalshikh, who has hosted several Riyadh Season cards featuring Joshua and Fury over the past five years. Alalshikh will assign who handles the logistics, but Hearn said it will not be Zuffa “because that’s contractually impossible.”
Earlier this week, Golden Boy Promotions’ Oscar De La Hoya issued a cease-and-desist letter to Zuffa to stop negotiating with Golden Boy fighter, and WBC welterweight champion, Ryan Garcia without Golden Boy’s involvement for a proposed September 12 title defense against Zuffa’s No. 1 WBC contender Conor Benn.
Hearn told Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix Thursday that streaming partner DAZN had previously issued a cease-and-desist letter to Zuffa/Paramount+ because Garcia is a DAZN fighter.
“I’ve never seen so many legal cases against a promoter in such a short time,” Hearn said. “These guys [Zuffa] are incredibly arrogant. They think they can just breeze in and do whatever they want. This is not the UFC. You can’t manipulate. You can’t bully people. You can’t tell people to take it or leave it or you’re out.
“What they’re doing is putting themselves in situations where they’re not respecting contracts, they’re tortiously interfering in contracts and disregarding and disrespecting promotion or broadcast contracts.
“The reality is Dana White can’t make Conor Benn against Ryan Garcia without the permission of DAZN, just like we had to get the permission from DAZN for Katie Taylor to box twice and Anthony Joshua to fight previously on Netflix. That’s not [Zuffa’s] style. They’re like, ‘We’re going to do it anyway.’ It doesn’t work like that, mate.”
White has previously predicted a full takeover of the sport by Zuffa and has signed former Hearn fighters Benn and world champions Jai Opetaia and Richardson Hitchins while pursuing four-division champion Shakur Stevenson, labeling rival promoters, “babies.”
Hearn countered, “Boxing’s just different. People don’t just back down from situations where they have a legal right.”
Hearn says he takes great pleasure in knowing that if Garcia fights Benn, White’s bitter rival De La Hoya must be co-promoter.
“Dana will never do that. He won’t allow himself to be put in that position. He’ll go, ‘We’re not doing that,’” Hearn said, also ridiculing White for saying he wouldn’t work with sanctioning bodies, but is now headed to an August 8 IBF middleweight title bout featuring Zuffa Boxing fighters Aaron McKenna versus Etinosa Oliha.
“He’s imploding so badly,” Hearn said, chiding White for recently criticizing the reach of DAZN when DAZN distributes UFC fights in Canada, Germany, Austria, Japan and elsewhere. “Key international markets.”
Speaking to BoxingScene on a wide range of topics Friday, Hearn said he was astounded to learn the 82,000 tickets for Katie Taylor’s farewell fight at Croke Park in her native Ireland were sold on Thursday, constituting a sell out.
“Unbelievable, he said, “It’s still a gamble when you go to a stadium. Because of the costs we had to incur, you need to sell it out to work,” Hearn said. “To see that… 80% of the tickets… we probably could have sold out twice.
“That will be the greatest atmosphere ever witnessed in boxing on September 5.”
With so many options available for new simultaneous cruiserweight and light-heavyweight champion David Benavidez of Premier Boxing Champions, Hearn said he’d like his three-belt light-heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol to meet Benavidez next.
Bivol, 25-1 (12 KOs), returned to the ring after more than a year-long absence May 30, dominating IBF mandatory challenger Michael Eifert.
Bivol has options, too, including a trilogy fight versus Russian countryman and former undisputed champion Artur Beterbiev or a WBO mandatory defense against former 168 lbs champion Callum Smith.
“I love the Benavidez fight. You’ve seen Dmitry Biviol defeat Canelo Alvarez. He’ll probably want to fight Benavidez, too,” Hearn said, noting there’s “tremendous” interest in Russia to host Bivol-Beterbiev III.
Hearn added that losing the WBO belt for not fighting Smith is “not the be-all, end-all,” but if the other fights don’t materialize, “We’ll be looking to make the Callum Smith fight next, wherever it happens.”
