Simon Jordan is rubbishing Eddie Hearn’s claims that a contract locks the Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua super-fight into the UK. Jordan insists Saudi chief Turki Alalshikh holds all the power and will decide the venue based on his own global agenda.
Hearn recently stated that Joshua’s team has a deal in place for a home fight at a stadium like Wembley. But Jordan dismissed this out of hand. He believes the person funding the nine-figure purses will be the one who chooses the location, regardless of what any prior agreement says. “My view is that wherever Turki decides, despite Eddie’s load of old [talk] about a contract that determines where it’s going to be, who determines where it’s going to be is Turki Alalshikh and what he wants,” Jordan said.
The blunt assessment boils down to simple economics. The money needed to make this fight happen is far beyond what UK ticket sales or domestic pay-per-view can generate. Jordan made it clear that Alalshikh’s investment dwarfs all other revenue streams. “The scale of the fight is going to be dwarfed by what he thinks, what he’s prepared to pay the two fighters,” he stated, adding, “It’s not going to generate it from the broadcasters, and it’s not going to generate it from the gate seats.”
This new reality of heavyweight boxing means traditional promoters are no longer in the driver’s seat. If Alalshikh wants the fight in the United States to align with his TKO and Dana White partnership, that’s where it will go. If Riyadh Season is the priority, it will stay in the Middle East.
Fellow analyst Adam Booth backed Jordan’s view completely. He noted that without Saudi involvement, the fight purses would shrink dramatically. The power sits with the money. “He’s the money in the room, and he can determine it, and he can say what he wants to say because he’s paying for the right to do so,” Booth said. The message is clear: while fans dream of Wembley, the final decision will be made by the man signing the cheques.
