Anthony Joshua was definitely made to work for the biggest payday of his young career.
A sixth round knockdown courtesy of a thudding Wladimir Klitschko right hand sent ‘AJ’ to the canvas and it looked for all the world that the Brit’s early composure was going to matter little come the final bell.
But Joshua refused to be beaten, regained his bearings and justified his pre-fight status as betting favourite by putting his Ukrainian opponent to the sword in the eleventh round.
Wladimir Klitschko goes up in everyone's estimation with first tweet following Anthony Joshua defeat https://t.co/fepS8qyvTe
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 30, 2017
It was a fight that was largely seen as make or break for Joshua – win and the hype showered on him since turning pro in 2013 would all be vindicated but lose and he have been ridiculed and dismissed as no more than an average fighter who had relied on strength to overpower average opponents early on in fights.
As it turned out, the former proved true and Joshua earned each and every penny of his largest payday to date.
It’s understood that Joshua and Klitschko ended up with a guaranteed £15 million apiece for Saturday night’s Wembley showdown.
The total purse for the fight was set at £20 million and was split between both fighters 50/50, while an extra £5 million each, at the very least, was to be expected once their respective cuts of pay-per-view and gate revenue were accounted for.
The combined pay-per-view and ticket revenue was expected to reach as high as £50 million ahead of the fight.
Best heavyweight title fight in years https://t.co/f8MfqlWtce
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 30, 2017
90,000 packed out Wembley on Saturday night, meaning that gate figures could reach as high as £8 million while the projected pay-per-view buyrate of 1.5 million in the UK and Ireland adds up to an expected £30 million.
TV station RTL owned broadcast rights for the fight in Germany and that deal will add roughly £4 million to the overall revenue. In the United States, HBO and Showtime also have a deal worth £2 million which saw the fight shown across the pond.
Klitschko pocketed a similar purse in his 2015 defeat to Tyson Fury while, for Joshua, Saturday night represented his most lucrative outing to date as he is understood to have earned between £2 million and £3 million for his previous bout, a successful defence of his IBF heavyweight crown against Eric Molina.
“Of course there is a lot of money at stake,” promoter Eddie Hearn said.
“With all these things, you can do the maths.
“I don’t like breaking it down to figures — but you know the pay-per-view price and you know the capacity of Wembley.”
