Eddie Hearn was talking about how the fight between dull, pampered and well-maneuvered British boxers Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua is “the biggest fight in boxing commercially”.
Fans outside the UK would rather see a real fight involving Canelo Alvarez versus Terence Crawford, David Benavidez, Artur Beterbiev, or Dmitry Bivol. These are real fights involving fighters who are still relatively close to their prime numbers.
ESPN's Mike Coppinger believes the Canelo-Crawford fight is bigger than the Fury-Joshua fight. The fight appears to be doing a million PPV buys in the US alone, which could happen. It will certainly be in bigger numbers than the Joshua vs. Fury fight on PPV from the American side. This still isn't the biggest fight Canelo will have. The match between him and David Benavidez will be much bigger than the one involving Crawford, but he doesn't want to fight the “Mexican Monster.”
So, Crawford is the best we can get right now, and that fight is still bigger than the one involving “The Gypsy King” and AJ. Both of these guys just lost. Daniel Dubois knocked out Joshua, and Fury was beaten twice in a row by Oleksandr Usyk. Under these unfortunate circumstances, how do promoters like Hearn try to promote a fight between Fury and Joshua on PPV, touting it as “the biggest fight in boxing”.
Selling worms
People know what Fury Joshua is about: money for them and the promoters. Trying to promote a fight between Joshua and Fury now at this late stage in their careers won't work outside the UK.
It is likely that the British will do so. Chances are they will want to watch it in droves and will pay anything to see their old heroes emerge once again in their golden years. Fans in the States won't care, especially if the underdog is as challenging at home as the Fury vs. Fury card. Oleksandr Usyk 2 and the events of Joshua vs. Daniel Dubois.
“Canelo Crawford is much bigger commercially. Bigger mile. Will easily eclipse 1 million PPV buys in the US at $80 (or thereabouts) and pull a $20+ million gate. Sorry, @EddieHearn,” Mike Coppinger said. X.
Joshua Fury would have been good a decade ago, but even then, he wouldn't be big outside of the UK. None of these heavyweights have been fighting high-end opposition throughout their careers. Part of the problem is that AJ and Fury fought during a weak era at heavyweight.
So, they were able to enjoy fighters like Deontay Wilder, 40-year-old Vladimir Klitschko, Alexander Povetkin, and Kubrat Pulev. And when some good fighters finally showed up, like Martin Bakul, they didn't want to deal with him.
