Via Charles Brun: Tyson Fury revealed today that he is splitting Anthony Joshua’s 60-40 purse, “take it or leave it”, the offer for a November fight in the UK.
The fact that Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs) wants the fight in November is likely to be an instant killer, as it leaves Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs) with very little time to do so. prepare and not rest. from his recent loss to IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk on August 20.
Eddie Hearn said today that the plan is for Joshua to fight on December 10 or 17. So unless Joshua chooses to ignore those plans, Fury will be out of luck with an offer to fight AJ in November. .
If you’re Joshua & Hearn you’re telling Fury to throw stones because they won’t agree with his November idea and it’s stupid to fight in the UK if there’s more money to make the fight clash in the Middle East.
If you’re Fury, you should change his offer and move the fight to December if he seriously wants to fight Joshua. It doesn’t matter that Fury holds the WBC belt and is undefeated.
His belt means nothing because Joshua is the more popular fighter, and that means everything when it comes to negotiating a fight.
Joshua better tell Fury to get lost and stick to his original plan of fighting a top 15 contender in December.
AJ needs to get three even matches under his belt before he can focus on fighting for a world title.
If Fury was still fighting at the time and not retired, so be it. He may not be the belt holder by the time Joshua finishes with his equalizer fights, as Usyk could dethrone him as early as 2023.
“Hi guys, I’m getting bombarded by messages about how much I’m going to pay AJ and people are saying 80-20, 70-30, 75-25,” Tyson Fury said on social media.
“The actual answer is that I offered him 60-40. 40% of this great fight because I want this fight to happen. He [Joshua] there is no reason not to accept it.
“He can’t say I’ve put him down, offered him 20% or 30%. I was suggesting to people 40%, take it or leave it,” Fury said.
Given Joshua’s popularity, the 55-45 split would have been better had he agreed to enter the fight in December, not 60-40. Forget November. That’s a stupid idea.
