Boxing titles are a mess, but undefeated heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua is rising through it. On March 31 in Cardiff, Wales he boxes New Zealand’s undefeated world heavyweight champion Joseph Parker, in a unification bout. With a win there, Joshua would likely fight undefeated world heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, thus becoming world champion of the actual world.
That would be a nice change for boxing, and potentially a very, very, very lucrative one. And Joshua is already making money that would make all UFC champs but one swoon with delight – he’s expected to make around $20 million for the Parker fight, and has made that kind of money before. And he did it without the lucrative US market.
The UFC is determined to get into the boxing business, and Gareth A. Davies for The Telegraph reports that the UFC intends to offer Joshua a deal that could be worth half a billion dollars.
The magnitude of boxing’s resurgence and the star quality of Anthony Joshua as a global sports commodity is only emphasized by the desire of UFC’s boxing arm, and specifically its president, the world’s most adept promoter Dana White, to strike a promotional arrangement with the British world heavyweight champion. The right deal would earn Joshua untold riches – an estimated US$500 million over the course of his career – but the route would have to be carefully managed.
There are three clear opponents in the UFC who could cross over and meet Joshua in a boxing match, all three would be huge events and would generate many millions of dollars. Would they be freak shows? Maybe, but they would be interesting.
The three UFC stars in contention are Stipe Miocic, the UFC’s current heavyweight champion, who has already told The Telegraph that a boxing match with Joshua is something he would do “100 percent“. Then there is the giant Cameroonian heavyweight Francis Ngannou. Thirdly, Jon Jones, the UFC’s peerless former light-heavyweight champion who is currently serving a ban for doping offenses.
The UFC is the richest promoter in combat sports but here’s the rub: Joshua would be unlikely to fight in an MMA contest until late in his boxing career, and the man-mountain told me as much on Wednesday from his training camp. If he were to sign a promotional deal, whatever it looks like, it would be in boxing for now.
Make it happen Dana White.
