Joshua, Fury sign deal for two-fight heavyweight unification

The heavy weight champion, holder of the WBA, IBF, and WBO, Anthony Joshua, has signed a deal with Tyson Fury, heavy weight champion and WBC holder, for a two-fight all-British world heavyweight title unification bout; the signings were revealed by Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, on Monday.

Hearn was cited to have acknowledged: “The hard part is always getting everybody to put pen to paper.

“But this was a major effort from all parties to get this over the line. You had rival promoters, rival networks and rival fighters.”

Meanwhile, “venue for the fights, in which Joshua’s WBA, IBF, and WBO titles and Fury’s WBC belt will be on the line, is set to be confirmed, Hearn had said, adding it will be made public “within the next month.”

It was indicated that Saudi Arabia, where Joshua won a rematch against Andy Ruiz Jr in December 2019, is the bidding to host both fights.

Hearn had also revealed he “already had approaches from eight or nine sites” across the Middle East, Asia, Eastern Europe, and America.

“We’d like to get a site deal confirmed in the next month.”

Joshua, 31, and Fury, 32, are expected to earn £100 million ($139 million) each, with the purse split 50-50 for the first fight and 60-40 for the rematch in favour of the defending champion.

Joshua has defended his WBA, IBF, and WBO titles against Kubrat Pulev in London in December after reclaiming the belt from Ruiz.

Fury’s last fight was his defeat of Deontay Wilder in February 2020 to claim the WBC title; he has not fought since then.