Promoter Eddie Hearn is adamant that the all-British clash between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury remains the biggest fight in the sport.
The long overdue fight between these two British giants will pique the interest of British fans, but that’s about it. It is more of a spectacle for people elsewhere in the world. American fans will not see the Joshua vs. Don’t want to buy Fury fight on PPV unless it’s priced low.
Fights involving Ryan Garcia and Gervonta Davis are more interesting to the US market for PPV than a Joshua-Fury fight. Garcia-Davis brought in over 1 million PPV buys, making it one of the most successful fights in the US for ages.
Hearn said on social media that he still thinks the Joshua-Fury fight is the one that draws the most interest from fans. However, that view could change if the 36-year-old Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) loses his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk on December 21.
The positive aspect of the bout is that it will still bring in a lot of money for Joshua and Fury and their promoters. With the Saudis financing the match, it’s going to be profitable, even if it’s a fight for old time’s sake rather than one that has any meaning.
Joshua-Fury = Household waste
The British fans will still be keen to see Joshua and Fury fight, but this is NOT the best fight in boxing. It is simply the best for the domestic level in the United Kingdom. If Fury defeats Usyk in December, it will go a long way in making a fight with Joshua seem less like an old fashioned money grab and more real.
Unfortunately, Fury is likely to be beaten by Usyk again in their December 21 rematch, but this time by knockout without an interfering referee stepping in to prevent the UK like the last time they fought on May 18.
It will still be a matchup between two shop-worn, pampered, manufactured heavyweights that are marketed to look like the real thing. They were both fools gold from the moment they turned pro.
Joshua has been closely matched by Hearn since turning professional in 2013, and his career would have been very different had he been thrown to the wolves earlier.
For example, Hearn did not schedule a fight between Joshua and Klitschko until the latter was 41, which came after a year-long layoff and a loss to Fury. Hearn could have made that fight in 2013 when Wladimir was still fighting at a high level. This is just one example of strategic matchups by Hearn that have benefited Joshua and helped turn him into a star without taking risky fights he might have lost.
Fury should have had two losses against Deontay Wilder and one against John McDermott. He would have had a lot more if he was matched up against fighters like Martin Bakole, Filip Hrgovic, Zhilei Zhang and Joseph Parker.
Will UK fans still buy AJ-Fury?
Fury will be 0-2 in a fight against Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs), who has a 4-3 record in his last seven fights. The four wins were tomato cans fed to AJ by Hearn as part of his expensive rebuild to get him back to what was hoped to be the factory level condition he was in when he was rolled off the premises in 2013.
“AJ vs. Fury,” Eddie Hearn said when asked what the biggest match in boxing is.
Hearn is right that Joshua-Fury is the biggest fight that can be made for British fans, but not worldwide. These two British heavyweights are considered old, washed up by Americans and never as good as originally believed. Joshua and Fury were both carefully maneuvered by their promoters to make them look bigger than they were, but neither was ever truly solid.
Their best wins were against his first Wladimir Klitschko. Wladimir was 39 when Fury defeated him in 2015 and 41 when Joshua stopped him in 2017.
