Tyson Fury may just have a chance to make history against Oleksandr Usyk in front of a home crowd.
Despite the early frontrunner to host the undisputed fight being Saudi Arabia, recent developments reportedly surrounding the construction of the stadium have changed thing.s
Fury’s UK promoter, Frank Warren, recently told TalkSPORT that no location was off the table, but did confirm that April 29 was pencilled in at Wembley Stadium.
Now, Bob Arum – who handles Fury’s boxing affairs in the States – has told ID Boxing News that Saudi Arabia is no longer in contention to host, and that it will be in England – therefore confirming the tentative Wembley date.
“The money if the fight was to be held in Saudi Arabia, which it’s not going to be because they’re not anxious to do that fight in the time period required, you’ve gotta put that aside because that money was really very big compared to what is realistic.
The real money from the fight, which will be the UK gate, pay-per-view, the American pay-per-view, and the other revenue from foreign sales, will be very very big as a fight – but it pales in comparison to the Saudi money.”
It’s good news for Fury’s home fans. ‘The Gypsy King’ entertained there in April of 2022 with a sixth round knockout of Dillian Whyte having sold a reported 85,000 tickets in the first three hours of going on sale.
The stadium does bring around a new set of talks, however. With the oil-rich country off the table, the potential purses for each fighter will shrink. Saudi was said to be negotiations their deals independently with each fighter, and it was known that Usyk was happy with his.
Now, he’s faced with a potential negotiation to get as close to 50/50 as he can with Team Fury, who have made it clear in the past that they don’t believe that’s right with the fight taking place in England.
Usyk’s promoter, Alex Krassyuk, was in the UK this week to continue discussions with Frank and George Warren.