Fury: Joshua fight set for Aug. 14

Heavyweight champion Tyson Fury said on Sunday that his long-awaited undisputed world championship fight with unified titlist Anthony Joshua is a go for Aug. 14 in Saudi Arabia.

“Got some massive news for you guys,” Fury said in a 43-second video posted to his social media. “I’ve just got off the phone from Prince Khalid (Adbdulaziz Al Saud) of Saudi Arabia. He told me this fight is 100 percent on — Aug. 14, 2021, summertime. All eyes of the world will be on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and I cannot wait — repeat, cannot wait — to smash Anthony Joshua on the biggest stage of all time.

“This is gonna be the biggest sporting event ever to grace the planet Earth. Do not miss it. All eyes on us. Peace out. God bless. See you all in Saudi! Yes!”

The process of making the fight has been drawn out for many months with various people involved saying it would happen this summer with others doubting it would happen or perhaps might be delayed until the fall.

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, who represents Joshua, has expressed optimism — insistence, really — that the fight would go ahead this summer while Fury co-promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank has been more reserved and at times doubtful it would get done.

But to hear it directly on Sunday from Fury, who had been one of those in recent weeks to express doubt, but who has been training for weeks in Las Vegas, is a good sign that the biggest fight that can be made today in boxing — the first-ever four-belt unification fight in heavyweight history — will be finalized.

Although Fury claimed the fight was “100 percent” happening, the papers are still not signed one source directly involved in the deal told Fight Freaks Unite on Sunday and estimated it may take another week or so to tidy up the paperwork.

“Everyone wants to make an announcement ahead of when it’s time,” the source said.

If the paperwork is indeed finalized, the fight will take place a little later than initially discussed with the Saudis, which had targeted the fight for late June or early July and then as late as Aug. 7. But since the Saudis are putting up an approximately $150 million site fee — an all-time record for a fight — to bring the event to their country, they have the final say on the date and site.

Arum has previously said the site would be Jeddah, a resort city that draws tourists on the Red Sea, although the capital city of Riyadh has also been mentioned as possibility.

The same Saudi group previously made a deal with Hearn to put up a record site fee of approximately $60 million to bring Joshua’s rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr. to a temporary outdoor stadium built for the fight in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia in December 2019, when Joshua won a lopsided decision to regain the three belts he lost by massive upset knockout Ruiz six months earlier in New York.

Among the issues that slowed the talks for Fury-Joshua was language covering a possible postponement and other Covid-19-related issues, according to sources.

Arum has previously said that assuming the deal is finalized, the fight will be televised via ESPN pay-per-view in the United States and as a joint BT Sport and Sky Sports PPV in the United Kingdom — the home country of Fury and Joshua — with DAZN, which is available in some 200 markets globally, likely to handle distribution for the rest of the world.

Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs), 32, has been frustrated by being out of the ring since Feb. 22, 2020, when he knocked out Deontay Wilder in the seventh round in Las Vegas to retain the lineal title and claim his WBC belt.

Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs), 31, last fought on Dec. 12 in London and knocked out Kubrat Pulev, one of his mandatory challengers, in the ninth round.