Bob Arum Knew Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk Fight Would Happen
Bob Arum was confident Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk would end up being agreed to.
Usually in boxing, Arum knows the top fights take a while to get made as there are plenty of people that get involved. However, for this massive fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyl, Arum says once Saudi Arabia’s Alalshikh, Chairman of The General Entertainment Authority and head of Riyadh Season came on board, the fight was relatively easy to make.
“I think all credit goes to Prince Turki and his organization because he was able to secure this fight,” Arum told Fight Hub TV. “He’s a no-nonsense guy who directly controls the sovereign fund in Saudi Arabia for entertainment. So, the fighters knew that once they signed contracts, the money would be there and they weren’t dealing with any middlemen.
“Once Prince Turki was in the picture, I was convinced that this fight was going to happen because like Tyson’s experience in the Ngannou fight, when he signed it, most of his purse was already in his bank account. It’s no nonsense and it’s good on his business and I was confident that this fight was going to happen once Prince Turki for Saudi Arabia decided that that’s the fight that the Kingdom wanted.”
Bob Arum says not dealing with a middleman for the funds made everyone confident the fight would happen.
“Of course, of course, the middleman, even if the middleman came from Saudi Arabia, like Skill Challenge, they can make a deal but then they’d have to go and get the funds from the sovereign fund,” Arum said. “And maybe yes they did it, when Usyk fought Joshua the second time, but you know, that wasn’t always going to be the case. Now with Prince Turki who controls the sovereign fund as far as entertainment, you’re not dealing with the middlemen, you’re dealing with the source.”
Who do you think will win, Tyson Fury or Oleksandr Usyk?