Tyson Fury’s own manager can’t tell you who is promoting Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua.
Spencer Brown, who manages Fury, laid out the contract mess around Dana White and Zuffa Boxing in comments Ariel Helwani posted on X Tuesday. According to Helwani, Fury’s team amended its agreement while Joshua’s side apparently kept the original terms. Two fighters, one fight, two sets of paperwork.
Brown said the first version of the deal shut White’s side out entirely. “At first, in our contract, there was no involvement from TKO, there was no involvement from Dana White, there was no involvement from Zuffa,” he said.
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Then the venue moved, and Brown said “that got changed because we changed venues.” His explanation of what Fury’s camp did next reads as though they dropped the language keeping White out. “We had two different contracts. We actually took it out because we didn’t see any problem in Dana White promoting the fight, especially in America. He’s one of the biggest promoters in the world.”
So Fury’s camp was fine with White promoting. Whether White is actually doing it is another matter, and Brown admitted in a second clip Helwani shared that he doesn’t know who is producing the show.
“I think Sela are behind all the production,” Brown said, adding that Sela could be working alongside another company. “They’re behind most of the ticketing, but that’s not to say I’ve been told that Dana could have an interest.”
Asked to confirm one way or the other, he punted. “I couldn’t tell you that because I wouldn’t know.”
How we got here
Fury vs. Joshua is set for Dec. 11 and will stream globally on Netflix, finally landing after roughly 10 years of talks between two of the biggest names British heavyweight boxing has produced. White’s involvement has been a sore spot since Netflix included it in its official press release, and White has kept defending his role publicly.
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The confusion got worse when the UFC listed an event at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on Dec. 11, the same night as Fury vs. Joshua, Bloody Elbow reported. Nobody has officially confirmed MMA fights will land on the Netflix broadcast, and the listing could simply reflect White’s promotional involvement. Boxing fans have split on the idea, with plenty of them arguing the undercard should go to British prospects instead of UFC fighters.
The question has gotten loud enough that cartoonist Chris Rini built an entire Holy Sh*t Moments strip around it on Monday, asking who’s actually promoting the fight. Brown’s answer, roughly, is that he’d also like to know.
Quick take
I’ve sat through enough fight weeks to know promotional credits get messy when Saudi money, Netflix and a UFC boss all crowd into the same photo. Still, a fighter’s manager should be able to name the promoter of his guy’s biggest payday, and Brown answering the question straight while confirming two contracts with two different sets of terms tells you this deal was stitched together on the fly. Fury and Joshua have eight weeks until Dec. 11, and somebody still has to tell Fury’s manager whose name goes on the poster.”
