The $200 Million Dollar Man

Big boxing money continues to get even bigger, making Francis Ngannou’s $10 million dollar payday seem quaint in comparison.

We already knew that Tyson Fury was set to make tens of millions of dollars in his upcoming fights, but now his promoter is claiming that “The Gypsy King” may earn close to a quarter of a billion dollars over the next six months.

Fury will box Francis Ngannou in October and then Oleksander Usyk in December or January. Both fights go down in Saudi Arabia as part of the country’s big Riyadh Season festivities. The House of Saud is reknown for throwing massive wads of cash around, and ESNews queried Fury’s promoter Bob Arum on claims Fury would make $100 million against Usyk.

“I didn’t say that!” Arum replied, before sharing an even more impressive number. “I said Fury, with that [Usyk] fight and the Ngannou fight, in the near future, we’re hoping that he comes in at around $200 million dollars.”

Arum also explained how the Fury vs. Usyk fight came together after all the ‘middle men’ in Saudi sports moved aside and the real player, Turki Al al-Shikh, came to the table to make a deal.

“We’re not idiots,” Arum said. “We studied and we knew that Turki [Al al-Shikh] was the head of the entertainment division of the [Saudi] sovereign fund, and what he says goes in spending money on entertainment and sports in Saudi Arabia.

“Everybody else was a middleman. Like Wilder and Joshua made a deal with Saudi people, but they were middle men. They have to go to him to get the money, and there was no assurance that they would get it from him. But if you’re dealing with the guy that’s in charge of the money, that’s a whole different kettle of fish.”

While Arum is excited for these two bouts, he admitted he’s not involved as he’d normally be because Saudi Arabia basically takes care of everything surrounding the event moving forward.

“It’s a big fight, it’s a good fight. It has nothing to do with me and my legacy,” he said. “I’m not the one that’s paying for it, I’m not the one that’s put it together. It’ll be a happy experience for us to be involved as we are in the event and to go over there and watch a good fight.”

Tyson Fury fights Francis Ngannou on October 28th. Few people are giving Ngannou much of a chance in that fight, but we assume the wiggle room in December or January dates for Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk is in case Fury comes out a bit beat up and needs some time to recover.