Eddie Hearn believes that the Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury fight will be the biggest sporting event of the year.
The Matchroom promoter was speaking to the DAZN Boxing Show in the aftermath of Tyson Fury’s confirmation of the August 14 date in Saudi Arabia, but before reports emerged of an arbitrator finding in favour of Deontay Wilder in his dispute with the current WBC champion.
When asked about the prospect of an undercard with high-profile fighters, Hearn explained to Ak and Barak how he saw the setup.
“It’s the biggest sporting event of 2021 and we need the undercard to go with that. Don’t forget that we’ve got Tyson Fury’s side, you’ve got Bob Arum, Frank Warren and MTK, and on our side you’ve got Matcbhroom and 258.
“From our side we want as many Matchroom fighters as possible, and from their side they're going to want Frank Warren fighters, Top Rank fighters, MTK Fighters, so we’re going to sit down and say here are our guys, who have you got, let’s match them together. We should be competitive.
“Sometimes you have to save money on the undercard, this is one of the times the undercard should be impressive and will be.
Saudi once again are going to build a stadium just for thjis fight. Wait ‘til you see it. It is absolutely spectacular.”
Hearn said he was not concerned that Fury’s announcement had been given more credit than some of his own fights, and is just looking to make sure the fight gets made.
“I told everyone last week, I’ve been telling everyone for two months. Last week, 14th Saudi Arabia. Fury comes out, I don’t care. This fight is beyond ego. It has to be done. I’m not looking for props, but give me some f—ng props," he said.
“It depends who comes to us and who comes from Top Rank. We’ve got an A-side, the B-side should be Top Rank, Queensberry and MTK. It’s hard to give you a fight right now but we’re looking at multiple title fights.
“The plan is to bring as many international fans as possible. Since I talked about it last week, the phones haven’t stopped. Obviously right now we’re in May, by the time August comes the travel situation will be very different, they’ll be providing information about how to get there.
“The capacity is somewhere around 15,000, going up. There’s a lot of interest locally, I think for AJ-[Andy] Ruiz we had about four or five thousand Brits. There’s a lot of Brits around Dubai. The Brits will be there in force.”