Given the money Fury earned for his two fights against Oleksandr Usyk in 2024, it wouldn’t be surprising if he pushed for a nine-figure payday.
This kind of claim would make more sense if Fury had recently beaten top-level heavyweights such as Fabio Wardley, Moses Itauma or Agit Kabayel. But coming into a Joshua fight on a two-fight losing streak is harder to justify.
Neither Fury nor Joshua have beaten a top-level heavyweight in several years, leading some fans to question how much real sporting value the fight now carries beyond its name recognition.
“What will encourage Tyson is the financial aspect of it,” promoter Frank Warren said Sky Sports Boxing. “It’s all about the value of the fight. It’s a big fight, and it’s worth a lot of money. Tyson has his price. If he gets his price, he’ll fight him.”
Warren added that he believes Fury will beat Joshua and even predicted a knockout, saying Joshua is “not hard to beat.”
Joshua, meanwhile, has recently taken on fights designed more to rebuild his profile than test him at the highest level, including fights against crossover opponents. Fury has lost twice in a row, and many fans still believe he was lucky to escape with a decision victory against debutant Francis Ngannou in October 2023, a fight that took place in Riyadh.
All of this fed into the wider debate: how much the Fury-Joshua fight is now really worth, and whether the money being discussed is still commensurate with what either fighter can deliver in the ring.
