British boxers Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua agreed to a two-fight deal that will unify the heavyweight titles, ESPN reported on Monday.
“We’d like to get a site deal confirmed in the next month,” said Eddie Hearn, managing director of Matchroom Sport, Joshua’s promoter. “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.”
The initial bout will have a 50-50 purse split, while a 60-40 shift in favor of the winner is expected for the rematch.
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Both fights are expected to take place in 2021, with the first earmarked for either June or July and the second for late in the year.
Fury (30-0-1, 21 knockouts) has been idle since February 2020, when he recorded a seventh-round TKO of Deontay Wilder. Fury captured the WBC and The Ring heavyweight titles with that victory.
Joshua (24-1, 22 knockouts) holds the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO belts thanks to his win to reclaim the titles from Andy Ruiz in December 2019. He sustained a seventh-round TKO upset to Ruiz in June 2019.
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–Field Level Media