Tyson Fury’s £80m US TV deal KOs hopes of Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder superfights
Bitter relationship between broadcasters and boxing’s biggest players will make the grandest bouts in the heavyweight division impossible
TYSON FURY has landed one of the biggest deals in boxing — and flattened his chances of fighting Deontay Wilder again or Anthony Joshua.
Boxing’s strange world of politics, TV contracts and big money is finally eating the sport itself.
It is a major blow to fight fans, who want to see the best fight the best.
Brit Fury, 30, has penned an £80million deal with Top Rank — headed up by legendary promoter Bob Arum — and American TV giants ESPN.
That will keep him exclusively on ESPN for all his bouts, alongside his UK BT Sport deal.
It sets him and his family up for life but the TV deals and bitter relationship between boxing’s biggest players will make the grandest fights in the heavyweight division impossible.
Wilder v Fury II was in trouble even before this deal and is further in the gutter now.
THE GOLDEN HANDSHAKE
FOLLOWING a casual meeting with Arum, who promoted Muhammad Ali, Frank Warren and Fury’s MTK Global management team thrashed out a deal.
In the UK, Fury will continue to fight on BT Sport pay-per-view.
But Warren revealed ESPN — beamed into around 89m homes in the US and owned by Disney — will soon be breaking into the PPV market.
The promoter said: “I could see where they were coming from, they did not go after Wilder and they have not made a run at Joshua, they wanted Tyson Fury.”
Now Warren has the financial muscle of Disney behind him, he insisted Fury will not get stitched up by the judges like he did in his draw against Wilder in December. He said: “I just prefer it to be on our promotion than on theirs. If it’s ours, you’ve got more control.
“If it had been on ours, Tyson would now be the WBC champion. He got robbed out there.
“How many more times can you keep rolling the dice?”
TY TO TOP 3 Tyson Fury catapults himself among Britain’s richest sportsmen after signing shock £80m TV deal
THE FALLOUT
FURY getting a mammoth contract should be good news.
But the behind-the-scenes politics have just reached Brexit proportions.
Anthony Joshua is promoted by Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom and has exclusive TV deals with Sky Sports and streaming platform DAZN.
Deontay Wilder is advised by mysterious US mogul Al Haymon and managed by Shelly Finkel. His fights are shown on American television station Showtime.
And with BT Sport and ESPN owning the rights to Fury, it means one of the TV firms letting their man fight on a rival channel if a big showdown is to be finalised.
Warren gets on well with Arum and Finkel, but he and Hearn are at war and he is livid that Haymon has never reached out.
On a recent trip to London, when asked about Haymon’s effect on boxing, 87-year-old Arum fumed: “He won’t co-operate with anyone, he’s a cancer on the business.”
Can you really imagine those two sitting down to arrange Wilder v Fury II now Arum is in Fury’s corner?
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THE PLAYERS
Al Haymon has been accused of protecting his stable and only making fights between his own guys.
WBO welterweight king Terence Crawford, for instance, wants to unify the division but the three other champions are advised by Haymon and have rejected offers, so he is facing Amir Khan.
Arum’s relationship with Haymon is toxic, but that’s better than Warren’s.
He said: “I’ve never, ever spoken or met with him. You can imagine how frustrating that is.
“If he walked in this room I wouldn’t even know who he was.”
Hearn and Warren have been battling over the UK market since Barry Hearn stepped aside and let his son take over Matchroom’s boxing arm.
Hearn and Finkel have been exchanging barbs for almost two years over the Joshua v Wilder fight that never was.
WHAT NOW FOR AJ?
THE fact Anthony Joshua had to scrap his April 13 Wembley card is embarrassing after he suffered from the shock success of Wilder v Fury.
A £25m pay day for his US debut against Jarrell Miller on June 1 should make up for it.
And as Hearn has just done the first billion-dollar boxing deal with streaming service DAZN, there seems like no chance of AJ popping up on ESPN.
But asked how it left a possible Fury v Joshua fight, Warren said: “It wasn’t close anyway. I think this deal makes it closer.
“Joshua might look at it and think, ‘Hang on a minute, can I make more money on DAZN or ESPN?’.
“Joshua’s the one at the end of the day who’s got to make some decisions.
“I don’t see how many they’re going to get against Jarrell Miller.”