Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury tickets went on sale Friday, October 9th at noon London time, and were completely sold out in under an hour. That’s 80,000 tickets snatched up with over 500,000 people in the queue left with nothing but frustration.
To say U.K. interest in the fight is high would be an understatement. A.J. vs. Fury will now go down as one of the hottest tickets in the history of boxing, something that wouldn’t have happened if the fight had been held in New York City at Madison Square Garden, which is what Zuffa Boxing head Dana White and his TKO overlords were planning.
With all the hype for the fight, White is finally admitting that maybe Joshua manager Eddie Hearn was right to enforce a clause that ensured the fight would go down in England.
“I don’t disagree,” White said of the U.K. location while speaking to The Sun’s Jack Figg. “There are a lot of different forces involved in an event like this. With how many tickets are sold in Cardiff, as big as the arena is, it would have done very well at Madison Square Garden too.”
“But I don’t disagree, and you’ve gotta credit Eddie and A.J. for fighting hard to keep it in the U.K. But this fight was going to do well wherever it was.”
This is rare praise from White, a man who has spent the last month calling Hearn a p–sy and full of s–t over his insistance the fight take place in the U.K. Still up for debate: White’s continued participation in the fight as an official promoter. A second clause in Joshua’s contract bars TKO from being a part of the fight. White has been encouraging Hearn to sue him if he wants to enforce it. But now he’s complimenting the Matchroom Boxing head!
Could this be a sign that the relationship is softening as all the money everyone is about to make becomes more obvious?