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FAT PURSE ANTHONY JOSHUA AND ANDY RUIZ JR WILL GET IN SAUDI REMATCH

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Whatever the outcome of the eagerly awaited rematch of Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz in the high profile boxing heavyweight bout in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, both boxers will certainly smile to the banks.

According to the globally acclaimed business magazine, Forbes, Anthony Joshua will make upwards of $60 million at the rematch as he attempts to regain his WBA, IBF and WBO Heavyweight titles.

However, British newspaper, Mirror, reports that the estimates reckoning the former champ could trouser in excess of £70million.

But Joshua said: “When you look at it, it’s like, you earn £100, you pay a lot to the tax man, a lot to the trainer, and before you know it you’re left with, in reality, 30 or 40 per cent.

“So it’s not what it really seems.

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“You have to manage yourself and not get flustered about what you think is yours, because 50 or 60 or 70 per cent of it isn’t.

Champions, Andy Ruiz Jr on the other hand will get £7.5m.

Despite Joshua not being the reigning champion, he stands to take the lion’s share of what is reportedly a mammoth dual payout.

He is still the A-side in this matchup for a variety of reasons. First, his star power as arguably the most popular British fighter in the world, wasn’t tarnished with his loss to Ruiz.

Secondly, he’s backed by the powerful Matchroom Boxing promotional machine, whose headman Eddie Hearn, secured a massive $40 million site fee to bring the bout to Saudi Arabia.

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 Lastly, the second fight was secured during the negotiation for the initial bout. An automatic rematch clause was installed which locked Ruiz into a set payout, no matter what other funds were negotiated for the second bout.

These concepts were substantiated by The Athletic’s Mike Coppinger back in August when the rematch was originally set up.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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