Eddie Hearn has laughed off rumours of the financial split in a Middle East-hosted heavyweight tournament.
The four-man contest would see Hearn’s man, Anthony Joshua, face Deontay Wilder whilst Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury battled it out for undisputed, with the general idea being the winners facing off.
Simon Jordan of TalkSPORT first revealed the rumours that were subsequently confirmed as true by most parties – at least in the sense of it was an idea being floated.
The controversial radio host has now let fans in on what he believes to be the latest bit of behind the scenes info – the proposed purses.
“You start hearing about the distribution deals and how you would buy Anthony Joshua out of DAZN. Or how you would do a dual-broadcast deal.”
“Or how maybe the Saudis would cut it. What I’ve been hearing in the loosest of terms is the cut. £200million – £90million to Fury, £50million to Usyk and £30million each for Joshua and Wilder.
That was an interesting piece of understanding that I got from that because I was thinking to myself, ‘Does Joshua accept £30million?’”
Well, ‘AJ’s promoter may have answered that final question. Hearn took to Twitter amidst the reports of the £200 million bill, laughing in response.
😂
— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) May 4, 2023
Furthermore, Prince Khaled Bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia called the numbers ‘not true’ and said that financial terms hadn’t been discussed.
There are many aspects of the tournament that leave fans sceptical – not least the purses and the broadcast deals. Still, enough people involved have said that it has potential to warrant some thought.
The closest of the two fights appears to be Joshua versus Wilder, with Hearn recently telling Boxing Social that both teams were onboard and the next stage would be putting it on paper.
As for Fury and Usyk, it’s a fight that’s simply to hard to predict in terms of the deal. There were seemingly no obstacles at the beginning of the year, and fans still watched it fall apart through a series of social media call outs and demands.
Usyk is due out next against mandatory challenger, Daniel Dubois, whilst Fury is expected to announce a summertime opponent soon.