ESPN has confirmed that Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua have signed a two-fight deal to fight twice in 2021 to unify the heavyweight titles.
The deal was confirmed to ESPN's Mark Kriegel by Anthony Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn. It had been reported by legendary promoter Bob Arum recently that the fight was agreed on both signs as far as he was aware and now the fight is signed by all parties. No date has been announced as yet but both fights are being targeted to happen in 2021. Hearn has the following statement made.
"We'd like to get a site deal confirmed in the next month," said Hearn, managing director of Matchroom Sport, Joshua's promoter (h/t ESPN). "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. I actually feel we've done the hard part," said Hearn. "Speaking for myself, Anthony and his team at 258 management, I know how hard we've worked hard these last couple of months and I just feel that this fight is so big it's not a difficult sell. We've already had approaches from eight or nine sites. The offers have come from multiple countries in the Middle East, from Asia, eastern Europe and America. This is the biggest fight in boxing and one of the biggest sporting events in the world," Hearn said. "It will be a major, major win for a country that wants to showcase itself."
The contract is signed
— ESPN Ringside (@ESPNRingside) March 15, 2021
Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn tells @MarkKriegel a deal has been signed for Joshua to face @Tyson_Fury in a two-fight series. pic.twitter.com/AAlvMdM6ey
ESPN also reports that the contract has the purse at 50-50 split in the first fight and 60-40 in the rematch, with the winner of the first fight taking the higher share. They also note that the current plan is for the first fight to happen in June or July, the rematch ideally taking place in November or December.
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