The Rumor Mill – Fury vs Joshua not in the UK?
The weekend of “tune-up” fights for Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua have passed, and we are all set for the superfight that has been anticipated for a long time in the United Kingdom. These two giants have been the top fighters from that area for some time, and they have been linked as rivals since Joshua won a world title in 2016. After years of the fight not being made we are now at the point where they will step in the ring against each other.
Last Friday, Fury stopped Mariusz Wach in seven rounds which followed his decision victory over Arslanbek Makhmudov in April. It was a fight that was not shown on live television, but there will be highlights that will be featured on a certain show that involves Fury…on Netflix, the second season of the series “At Home with the Furys” is currently being shown and it has been renewed for a third season. With snippets of Tyson’s fight against Wach being added on to the show it will build anticipation for the fight against Joshua which is planned for the fall. Joshua, who returned to the ring on Saturday after a car accident where he lost two of his closest friends, responded from two knockdowns in the first round to defeat Kristian Prenga by knockout in Saudi Arabia.
With those two wins in the books, it seals the deal that these two will finally clash at the center of the ring in the fall. Fight fans from the United Kingdom have been clamoring for this fight to take place and now they are making plans to get tickets for it whenever it is announced. The presumption is that this fight will be at Wembley Stadium, but is that a lock? According to speculation, that might not be the case.
There have been some reports that with Netflix likely being the streaming service that would have the rights to showing this event, they will have the final say as to when Fury and Joshua will have their fight. Turki Alalshikh has been an instrumental figure in trying to get this fight over the line as he has hosted multiple events with Fury and Joshua headlining fight cards. This is easily the biggest fight in UK history and Turki will be involved in organizing the event, with Sela and Ring potentially being the lead organizations to host it.
While Turki has been the head figure of many of the big events with Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, it is Netflix that may command what happens in reference to this fight. With that being stated, Netflix could be leaning towards having this fight outside of the United Kingdom.
Now why would they have the biggest fight in the UK not be in the UK?
Because they may want to cater to their largest market.
Most of the subscriber base for Netflix is in the United States which has an estimated 90 million subscribers. The United Kingdom has an estimated 18 million subscribers. Despite the fact that the majority of people that will be interested in the fight will be based in the United Kingdom, Netflix may lean towards presenting the fight at a time that will be beneficial to the American market.
Picture Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua stepping in the ring after midnight UK time…that could be the plan that Netflix has for this event. If that is the case, London may not end up being the location for this fight as there are noise ordinances in place after midnight. A majority of sporting events there end around that time. If the Fury-Joshua fight will not start until 1:00 am in the UK, that would not be allowed to take place in England. Therefore, other locations are being considered.
As stated earlier, Netflix aims to present this event so that viewers in their largest market will have their best opportunity to tune in. A theory that has been raised is that since both Fury and Joshua have had fights in America, fight fans from the UK can fly over to see this fight. Recently the England national football team had a run in the World Cup in North America as they finished third in the tournament. With that being the case, we could see a superfight involving two UK heavyweights in America.
Talks have spread that this bout could be planned to be at a well known venue in America…which leaves a few options. Two of them that stand out are T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and Madison Square Garden in New York City. A flight to New York from London is seven hours, and there were a number of fans that did make the trip for Joshua’s fight at Madison Square Garden in 2019. This could bring up the possibility that this fight planned for the fall could be at that venue.
