By: Sean Crose
Rumors of the demise of boxing in North America appear to have been greatly exaggerated. Super-sized Englishman, and former world titlists, Anthony, Joshua and Tyson Fury are set to fight later this year. Naturally, one would expect the fight to go down in Great Britain. These are both subjects of the crown after all. Boxing is never that easy though. What’s more, the days of Vegas being the end-all be-all for the sweet science are over. The big question now seems to be not if the two men will fight but when exactly they will begin to throw down.
Both Fury and Joshua are now past their primes. A fight between the two men, however, is an enormously big deal. There’s an air of unfinished business about this as if the men should have fought long ago… as they probably should have. Rather than crying over what should have been, however, the promotion wants to present a thrilling fight of the moment. And it can be just that provided both men are at their best. With that being said, a fight held at 11:00 p.m. Wembley time would begin at about 5:00 p.m. eastern time in the United States. That’s not prime time for sports watchers in the western hemisphere. Turki al Sheikh clearly feels this fight his international appeal.
Turki, who’s become perhaps the biggest power player in boxing, feels that this fight can draw a lot of attention. So much attention that it will bring in audiences from around the globe. He may be right. He may be wrong. You can’t blame the guy for being ambitious, however. The problem is that Wembley Stadium where the fight is likely to go down has an 11:00 pm curfew. That will have to be changed if the fight is going to be watched live by millions of people throughout the world. The difficulty in this sort of thing is finding a time that’s solid for everyone without losing potential viewers.
The truth is that there will probably be a curfew break. Everyone knows this should be in England, but nobody wants to watch it with a million other sports events going on… at least that’s true of the United States. Oh sure, we fight fans will tune in no matter what time it starts. That’s not the case for casual fans, however, and it’s obvious Turki is looking for casual fans. Look for the fight to actually go down between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. eastern standard time here in the states.
That will make for a long night for fans in the British Isles. It’s hard to imagine them getting too angered about this though. Fans on the elastern seaboard of the United States have to deal with the same thing. A lot. Fights may not start as late as 2:00 in the morning here, but they can definitely start very, very late for east coast viewers. In other words, if this fight is interesting to casual fans, people will find a way to tune into see it, no matter what time it’s on.
The question is how big would an Anthony Joshua-Tyson Fury fight actually be across the Atlantic? People know who Joshua and Fury are, but they’re not some of the biggest sports stars in North America like they are back in Europe. There has to be a really good promotion to get a general North American sports fan to tune into the fight no matter what time it’s on. Turki obviously feels he can do that. One would assume that Joshua and Fury feel he can do it too.
