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Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury could clash in New York as talks continue over a venue for the British mega-fight.
Joshua and Fury have been on a collision course for a decade without setting foot in the same ring. Both men signed to fight each other earlier this year with the bout pencilled in for Wembley in November. But Saudi boxing chief Turki Al-Sheikh is insisting on a 4am start time in the UK in order to capture the American TV market.
That means the fight could be moved Stateside with Las Vegas and Los Angeles in the running to play host. But promoter Eddie Hearn has revealed the clash could instead land at Madison Square Garden in the Big Apple. “Netflix want the biggest audience possible, and they feel like a mid-afternoon start time in the US will jeopardise the potential to maximise the audience,” he said.
“I think they probably feel like a 2am. start in the UK versus a 10pm start won’t actually change the audience size in the UK.”We’ve had a meeting about this but there’s been nothing in the last two weeks, and I think there’s probably a lot of work behind the scenes now with Turki maybe talking to [London Mayor] Sadiq Khan. But a lot of the Americans want to do it at MSG; not Vegas, they want it at MSG.”
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Joshua and Fury signed contracts which contained a clause guaranteeing the fight would take place in the UK. But the fighters could yet be convinced to waive that right. “It was always going to be in the UK,” added Hearn. “There was never any doubt this fight was in the UK until there were some approaches from America in terms of the revenue that could be achieved at MSG.
“Netflix are probably saying they prefer it there and these are elements that we don’t actually have any control over because we’re not really the purse strings behind the fight, Turki Al-Sheikh is. When you sign a contract, you expect that to be honoured and followed, and we’ve never done a deal with Turki where he hasn’t done that.
“I don’t think he’s trying to pull a fast one. I think he’s paying a lot of money for the fight, and he wants to make it as big a success for every stakeholder involved.”
