Anthony Joshua will have paid out more than £1 million of his own money by the time he encounters Joseph Parker in the Principality Stadium on March 31.
Joshua will have to pay out £270,000 in fees as boxers give three per cent of their purses in fees to the boxing authorities.
The aim of the sanctioning fees was to recognise champions of each weight division and allocate the fights between the champion and available opponents.
The 28-year-old Watford-born heavyweight is expected to take a £3 million purse from the Cardiff fight as Joshua defends his WBA, IBO, and IBF belts against the New Zealander. It’s seven times less than Joshua received in his last Cardiff bout, the Carlos Takam 2017 fight was 90/10 in Joshua’s favour, meaning Joshua earned £10million and Carlos Takam just £750,000. The exasperated world champion Joshua said: “Sanctioning fees rack up.”
His promoter Eddie Hearn said: “You will see fighters vacate over time — look at Saul Alvarez, who said he didn’t want the WBC belt on the line against Gennady Golovkin.
“But the belts come with what we are trying to achieve. Without the belts, we can’t become undisputed champion of the world.”
“We can’t just throw one away, we are trying to make history. The obvious thing to do is to win all the belts – that’s what you should set out for. Any fighter should set out to be the best and win every belt in the division.”
It’s an easy way to gain more cash, however, the glory of a title belt surely overshadows the prospect of sanction fees for most fighters.