Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury could be bought by an Asian billionaire, Eddie Hearn has revealed.
AJ’s promoter explained on Monday that contracts are signed for the undisputed heavyweight title fight, with just the date and venue left to be resolved.
Multiple foreign nations are now bidding big money to try and secure the contest, but one particular approach has caught the eye.
Hearn told reporters: “I had an approach [on Wednesday], not from the Middle East, but it was the most bizarre approach.
“I can’t say who it was but it was from a very wealthy individual and he wants to do something very special.
“We’ve had 20 approaches for this fight but you know which ones are serious.
“This one was just well out there. And it’s a realistic option, money is not an issue with this guy.
“Commercially it’s a bit strange, but it’s not about that. It’s a trophy asset to say, ‘This is the biggest event in the world.’
“And that’s the mindset of an individual who wants to bring it to his own country.
“It’s not about selling tickets, it’s not about government investment… it would him be saying, ‘I’d be paying for it.’
“There’s a number for the fight, you hit the number, you get the fight and the number was not an issue for this individual.
“Saudi have paid the site fee before, we’ve worked together before, it’s not complicated, it’s just about tying up the dates, but this offer is a bit different.
“All I will say is it’s in Asia. Not Macau but not far away.”
On Thursday, Hearn joined talkSPORT and dismissed claims suggesting AJ vs Fury could be delayed to later in the year in order to maximise revenue generated by the lucrative site deal.
June/July has been consistently touted as the target date, but there have been rumours that the fight could be pushed back as countries could pay more money when various COVID restrictions are lifted.
When asked if he’s confident the fight will happen this summer Hearn told White and Jordan on talkSPORT: “Yeah, that’s 100 per cent the focus.
“We know it’s a difficult world at the moment, we know there’s travel restrictions, we know global economies are crumbling, but ultimately that’s the date of the fight.
“People are talking about, ‘Some people might prefer this fight to take place in September/October/November.’
“Well, ‘some people’ aren’t us. We want Fury against AJ, two fights this year.
“This is what we’ve signed up to, this is what we’re talking to all the relevant sites and approaches that we’ve had is a two-fight agreement, one in June/July, one in November/December.”