Joshua to make £30m in December tourney

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By Peter Akinbo.

Former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua has been tipped to earn £30m from the potential December tournament in Saudi Arabia also involving Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk, and Deontay Wilder.

According to talkSPORT’s Simon Jordan, the purses for the Saudi Arabia planned heavyweight mega event could amount to £200m.

Last month, Jordan first divulged that the Saudis were eyeing the possibility of staging Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua vs Deontay Wilder on the same night in December.

This has since been confirmed as true by representatives for Usyk, Joshua and Wilder, with Eddie Hearn even flying out to the Middle Eastern nation last week for advanced talks.

Giving the latest update, Jordan has now revealed rumours he’s heard about the potential purses each man could receive.

“You start hearing about the distribution deals and how you would buy Anthony Joshua out of DAZN,” Jordan said on talkBOXING, “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. £200m – £90m to Fury, £50m to Usyk and £30m 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?’”

“Who are the two champions? Who are the two A-sides? Who are the two people that are gonna bring the perceived numbers to the Saudis to make it interesting for them to do? Then it becomes a carve-up.

“These guys expect to get paid the value. Fury’s got a sense of value of himself and he will take it as a point of principle.

“Because ultimately if there’s gonna be x-amount of money on the table, (he) wants the bulk of it.”

Some have suggested that Fury’s financial demands may be stalling the proposal, to which Jordan said; “If Fury wants the most money, he’s gonna be the person most difficult to deal with. That means the negotiations will be more complicated.

“If it’s cut the way I’ve been suggested it may well be cut – £90m to Fury, £50m to Usyk, £30m to Joshua, £30m to Wilder. Then I don’t see that Fury would be someone stopping it.”