Nigerian boxing champion, Anthony Joshua has pocketed millions of pounds for defeating his opponent, Pulev.
Joshua and Pulev
World champion, Anthony Joshua will earn between £6-10million for defeating his opponent, Kubrat Pulev, at the SSE Arena, Wembley, on Saturday night, December 12.
Joshua retained his WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles as he defeated IBF mandatory challenger, Pulev, in front of 1000 fans. After a slow start from him, in the third round, he stood his ground and turned things around.
According to reports by The Telegraph, he’s set to earn around £6-10million from his win over Pulev on Saturday night. It is far less compared to his last match, but due to the pandemic with strict regulations, there were only 1000 fans in attendance at Wembley Arena.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn said:
“We have to rely on the revenue that could be generated from the fight, via the gate and not the revenue that could be generated by a tourism board or by a Government to bring an event like that to a country, so that’s why it’s always difficult. It will literally be probably a 50 per cent pay-cut to do the fight in the UK and that’s how brutal it is.”
The 31-year-old boxing champion also mentioned he fought Pulev with a massive pay cut. He said:
“Now I’m fighting Kubrat Pulev for a massive pay cut. We have to keep the sport alive, Matchroom are taking pay cuts this year, we have to keep the sport alive. We are all doing our part at the minute, It’s all experience. We are doing it now so I wouldn’t mind doing it again.”
However, both fighters could exceed those figures as pay-per-view numbers are expected to be higher than normal given strict Covid-19 protocols, which led to the lack of spectators allowed at the venue.