Am I right that if he fights in the fall/winter next - which seems likely whether it’s an immediate rematch or a different opponent in a comeback fight - that it would have to be indoors? Due to weather I mean. How big are the largest venues that could host him in the fall or winter? Which are those? How big is O2? And I wonder if Ruiz holds enough cards to insist on Las Vegas or LA for the rematch.
Joshua fought Takam and Parker in Cardiff in a stadium with a capacity of around 75,000. That's the only realistic option if they go with a stadium as it's got a roof; Wembley is fully outdoors which won't work outside the summer. The drop down to arenas is fairly substantial. The biggest (O2 and Manchester) hold around 20,000. Ultimately if he can sell out a stadium the difference in capacity with an average ticket being about £150 equates to more than £8m.
Usually I'd agree with you. Something like when price took the rematch was a stupid move and that's without the benefit of hindsight but in this situation it would be down to the reason why A J lost. I mean to me he didn't look the same going into the fight. Let's say he had received a knockdown in sparing in the last week and he wasn't 100% recovered or fighting in the states and all the new promo work had got to him, If it was something like that and they had the rematch in u.k then it might make more sense to get the rematch back on asap
The reason that AJ will not be fitting bathrooms with Pricey is his bank balance he has to be worth £50M and it wouldn’t surprise me if he retired.
AJ is sorted, he’ll still get paid ridiculously for the Ruiz rematch - everyone will want to see the fight now.
Let’s say for some reason AJ at this points decides to not exercise the rematch clause (yes, they’ve said he’s activated the clause but suppose for a moment that he changed his mind or things couldn’t get worked out and Ruiz puts something together with Wilder or whatnot) ... could you see AJ filling a major stadium if he next fought: Trevor Bryan, WBA No. 1-rated. Agat Kabayel, IBF No. 3. Or Tyrone Spong, WBO No. 6. All three could, I presume, be sold to the masses as “legit” contenders ... but would the UK public buy it? Or what if he took aim at David Price?
Big shout out to Tyrone "King of the Ring" Spong. He deserves a chance, his been trying to get Hearns/Matchroom's attention. If AJ somehow lost to David Price, I think the Universe would break and 50 per cent of all living creatures would die.
He didn’t sell out against Povetkin as the novelty was wearing thin. There’s a very good chance he sells out a stadium for the rematch but anything after, win or lose, is a no-no unless Wilder (which would be in America) or Fury.
[url]https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/48602166[/url] [url]https://www.forbes.com/athletes/list/#tabverall[/url] According to Forbes Joshua earned $55m between June 2018 and June 2019. Same amount as Lewis Hamilton, and making him the joint 13th richest athlete on the planet for the last twelve months. Now, regardless what that means to his bank balance, it does put Joshua into a position whereby if the desire to keep boxing genuinely wavers, the suggestion that he might just walk away may be a little more believable. Interestingly Wilder also made the list, coming in at number 56 with earnings of $30.5m. The figures show that Wilder was paid $30m for the Fury and Breazeale fights combined, whilst Joshua earned $45m for Povetkin and Ruiz. The additional amounts were from endorsements.
Watching boxing in a stadium is a terrible viewing experience. Simply awful. Each time you fill a stadium with 80,000 plastic boxing fans you create 79,000 plastic boxing fans that will never watch boxing in a stadium again. Paying a hundred odd quid to watch on the Wembley big tellies (pixelated and out of sync) versus paying twenty quid to watch at home. No one will make that mistake more than once in their life. I call it the law of diminishing returns.
There's more interest in AJ now than ever before, everyone wants to see what happens next as it could shape the division for the next 5 years. AJ entices more people than any other active heavyweight on the planet, I'm not his biggest fan but it's very hard to argue with that, Wilder struggles to fill bingo halls and has two decent fighters on his record. Fury had a big lay off and needs his mouth to sell fights. Until Ruiz jnr, AJ was sparking out top 5/10 boxers in huge stadiums, on TV watched all around the world.
It's this isn't it? I can't remember which round it was but Joshua caught Ruiz with a peach of a left hook and it did absolutely nothing. Going str8 back in the Ruiz is a total arrogant folly. Take a step back and regroup or risk losing everything going forward.
AJ's rematch against Ruiz if in th UK will do Klitschko numbers. Will be his biggest viewed fight since then IMO