Anthony Joshua accepted a pay cut of over £10million for his long-awaited clash with Tyson Fury to take place in the UK, according to his promoter Eddie Hearn.
Joshua and Hearn held out for the fight to be staged in Britain while Saudi Arabia’s boxing kingpin Turki Alalshikh, his American partner Dana White and broadcasters Netflix pressed for New York’s Madison Square Garden as the venue.
Backed by the terms of their contracts with Sela, the Saudi entertainment company, they eventually got their way with the 80,000 capacity Principality Stadium chosen because of its retractable roof.
But for it happen in Cardiff on December 11, Joshua had to accept a reduced purse.
Hearn said: “People started saying ‘please bring the fight to the UK’ and AJ started feeling that.
“To keep it in the UK he’s got to turn down eight figures plus. AJ goes to me ‘whatever you think’ and I’m like ‘no, no, no, it’s your money. I can’t make that decision for you’.
“He asks what (do you) think I should do and I told him I think the UK is where the fight should be because there’s an edge for him to have this fight in the UK, but it’s a lot of money. And he went ‘f*** it, we’ll do it in the UK’.”
Alalshikh revealed moving the fight away from New York cost him £53million and holding the ring walks in the early hours of the Saturday morning was a concession that had to be made for the American market.
Wembley was his preferred choice with his ambition to have pop star Dua Lipa also performing on the night, but the strict 11pm curfew in place for events at the venue made it unviable.
Alalshikh: “I wanted it at Wembley – tell the mayor. Tell Dua Lipa. I knew from the beginning that London would not give me the stadium until 2am. In the end, Wales has delivered and that’s still in the UK.”
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