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Top Rank’s CEO Bob Arum, who co-promotes WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, could see the boxer have another major stadium event in the UK – against Olympic silver medal winner Joe Joyce.
Fury was in action back in April, when he knocked out mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte before a crowd of 94,000 at Wembley Stadium in London.
Arum believes a fight between Fury and Joyce would do just as well as Fury and Whyte.
Joyce is promoted by Frank Warren – who is also the co-promoter for Fury.
Before anything, Joyce will fight Christian Hammer at Wembley Arena on July 2.
Fury has expressed his desire to retire from the sport, but Arum expects the large heavyweight to fight again.
“He’s going to fight, he’s a fighting man, and I expect Tyson Fury back in the ring before the end of the year. I think if Joe Joyce wins his fight in early July, Tyson Fury and Joyce at Wembley in early at the beginning of October will do as well if not better – I don’t know how you can do better – but as well as the Dillian Whyte fight with Tyson Fury,” Arum told Queensberry Promotions.
“That will lead to a Fury fight against the winner of Joshua and Usyk. I’ll do the best I can to make sure that fight takes place in the UK because I don’t think it’s good for boxing to have a fight like that and putting it in Saudi Arabia.”
Speaking of Saudi Arabia – that’s where the rematch between Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk will take place on August 20, for the WBO, WBA, IBF, IBO titles.
Arum disagrees with the idea of staging major fights in Saudi Arabia.
“I think you make more money doing it that way but I don’t think it’s right for the fans. Boxing is a sport that depends on the enthusiasm of the fans and you would never think of taking the Super Bowl and moving it to Saudi Arabia, no matter what the Saudis are willing to pay,” Arum said.
“In the short term, it might be advantageous to go to Saudi Arabia to grab the money. But long term, it’s not good for the sport.”