Frank Warren believes that a fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua could be worth “two hundred million”.
The 70-year-old was a guest on Talksport yesterday and spoke to hosts Jim White and Simon Jordan about Fury potentially fighting the winner of this summer’s Oleksandr Usyk-Anthony Joshua rematch.
Fury’s future remains up in the air despite the WBC heavyweight champion claiming Saturday night’s victory over Dillian Whyte was the last fight of his career. However, as Simon Jordan alluded to, the enormity and economics involved in a fight against Joshua may be too good to turn down for Fury.
“If that happened then we’d have to work out between us what the percentages would be,” said Warren.
“I would obviously be arguing that Tyson gets more for obvious reasons. But whatever it’s settled at that’s how it would be split and it’d really workout that there would be a certain guarantee. How these things move on is that there’s a pot and it’d be determined by how much money we get into the pot from pay-per-view and how it’s split. There’d be a guarantee against a split, but it could be a 200 million fight.”
Warren, who co-promotes Fury with Bob Arum, didn’t indicate what currency for such a gargantuan figure but the possibility of Saudi Arabia hosting an undisputed fight would significantly increase the value.
Oleksandr Usyk is the man that stands in the way of the all-British blockbuster that many are clamouring for. The Ukrainian has returned to training having left his war-torn country and Warren believes that the unified heavyweight champion’s pedigree along with his recent back story places a fight against Fury on a bigger scale compared to what it was.
“I also think the Usyk fight’s a huge fight,” said Warren.
“The people bought into Usyk. They watched him absolutely take Joshua apart. The fact of the matter is Usyk has established himself. He comes with a lot of pedigree. At cruiserweight he was the best cruiserweight out there by far. And he’s made it, he’s now a full-blown heavyweight and he’s certainly shown what he’s got against Joshua. For me, that’s a no-brainer fight. And you look at the sympathy quite rightly towards what’s going on in Ukraine, he comes from Ukraine. It’s a big story and a big, big fight.”
An undisputed fight will only take place however should Fury rip up his retirement plans and return for the chance to hold every single title in the division. Warren was asked if he thought ‘The Gypsy King’ will fight again.
“He’s a fighting man. He loves fighting. I don’t know. I wouldn’t bet my house on it. He’ll make his mind up in his own time. If he does fight on, I’d much rather he did it now than come back in two- or three-years time because he’s at his peak now.”