Bob Arum: Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua wouldn’t sell at all in the U.S. now

Badlefthook.com

Former unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua obviously needs to get back to the drawing board to rebound from his huge upset loss to Andy Ruiz Jr. last weekend, and Top Rank promoter Bob Arum thinks Joshua has hurt his stock so much in that loss that there’s no point in doing a Fury-Joshua fight in the U.S. in the foreseeable future.

“The trouble is, Anthony Joshua had no reputation in America before. He has no reputation now. He got knocked out by Andy Ruiz, that says it all,” Arum exclusively told World Boxing News.
“If you put Joshua in with Wilder or Fury in the United States, it wouldn’t sell at all.

Arum would continue by saying that the nobody in the American market really knew who Joshua was even before the Ruiz fight, and suggests they’re probably even less inclined to pay attention to him now. The promoter also asserts that DAZN’s gained very few subscribers for the platform from Joshua’s last fight, which is a shame considering all the money they’ve ponied up to have him on their streaming service.

But as far as any thoughts about a future Fury-Joshua fight, Arum concludes:

“Who the f*** is going to pay to see that fight?”

Arum, like some other folks in the boxing world, also warns that it might not be the best idea for Joshua to rush into an immediate rematch with Ruiz following what just happened. Instead he thinks it might be better for Joshua to rebuild his confidence, even if that means walking away from his rematch clause, leaving all of the heavyweight world titles under Al Haymon’s PBC banner for the time being.