Tyson Fury, it seems, remains adamant that he won the ‘Ring of Fire’ against Oleksandr Usyk. The duo met last month on May 18 at Riyadh’s Kingdom Arena for the heavyweight division’s undisputed title fight. The Ukrainian champion eventually emerged victorious, winning by a split decision. Following the loss, ‘The Gypsy King’ invoked the rematch clause. So the new undisputed champion and the former heavyweight champion will meet again on December 21. In a recent interview, the Mancunian poured his heart out, talking about how the fight went, where exactly things went wrong, and more. As it appears, the discussion on the podcast ‘Furocity’ has grabbed considerable attention since it came. It follows muted voices that have seemingly questioned his drive for the rematch. Eddie Hearn was present at the Kingdom Arena ringside, watching the two heavyweight champions clash.

He was asked for his opinion on the commotion that broke out after Tyson Fury’s latest interview. The Matchroom boss shared his two bits on what might have caused Tyson Fury to make the contentious statements. Subsequently, he also shared his views on whether ‘The Gypsy King’ can turn the tables in the rematch.

Boxing Debate: Eddie Hearn analyzes Tyson Fury’s close fight loss

IFL TV‘s Joe Pugh caught up with Eddie Hearn in Birmingham. The Matchroom honcho had come down for the Tyler Denny–Felix Cash card. So the reporter asked Hearn whether he had seen Tyson Fury’s interview. Eddie Hearn replied that, although he hadn’t, he had received the details from his acquaintances.

In the heavyweight division’s most important fight for a quarter of a decade, Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk travelled to Riyadh and put their respective world titles on the line to crown a first undisputed four-belt champion of the division. Now, we have a gauge on how well the historic event performed, as the number of pay-per-view buys have been revealed.

It was Oleksandr Usyk who fought through the fire to achieve the coveted goal and etch his name into the history books with a legendary win over ‘The Gypsy King’ despite a near 40lb weight differential, dropping and almost stopping Fury in the ninth-round before pressing the proverbial accelerator and banking the late rounds to edge out a famous split-decision win.

Of all of the recent blockbuster events brought to us by Turki Al-Alshikh and staged in Saudi Arabia, Fury-Usyk was undeniably the largest, eclipsing the hype that surrounded the ‘The Battle of the Baddest’, ‘Day of Reckoning’ and ‘Knockout Chaos’ cards.

ESPN has now reported the number of pay-per-view buys that were racked up from the legendary clash, that also featured a stacked undercard with two further world title bouts taking place before the main-event.

“According to sources, Usyk-Fury generated upward of $50 million in pay-per-view revenue with 1.5-million-plus PPV buys (the vast majority from the U.K., where Fury is a megastar). The event also made $40 million in sponsorship and another $3 million-plus in ticket sales. All in — production, fighter purses, entertainment, travel, etc. — the event cost in the neighbourhood of $120 million.”

With over 1.5 million pay-per-view buys, the Fury-Usyk or ‘Ring of Fire’ show generated the second highest number of purchases of any card headlined by a Brit, being trumped only by Lennox Lewis’ victory over Mike Tyson in 2002. Additionally, the undisputed title showdown was the most purchased pay-per-view bill to not involved either Floyd Mayweather or Mike Tyson, outperforming the trilogy fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, according to Statista.

Overall, Fury-Usyk achieved the ninth highest pay-per-view purchases of any boxing event, whilst Tyson Fury supposedly netted the fifth highest purse of all-time as he banked around £85 million – the highest a fighter has ever been paid aside from fights involving Mayweather and therefore the biggest payday in heavyweight history.

After a thrilling first encounter, it will be interesting to see how well their rematch performs in comparison, although the attraction of a first undisputed heavyweight title match-up of the millennium will not add to the allure. That meeting will take place on December 21st in Riyadh once again, where pay-per-view sales may also be impacted by the Christmas period.

Once their rematch has been concluded, either Anthony Joshua or Daniel Dubois may well be waiting for the winner, but Oleksandr Usyk has revealed that he has other plans and that he does not intend on sticking around to defend the belts after he has faced Fury for a second time.

Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk have been encouraged to “speak out” about the “urgent need for human rights reform” in Saudi Arabia.

The rival champions fight in Riyadh on Saturday in the first undisputed heavyweight contest for nearly 25 years.

Saudi Arabia has paid huge sums to host the bout, which is the latest in a string of boxing events in the Kingdom.

But the country continues to face sportswashing and human rights violation claims and Amnesty International has said Fury and Usyk should “acknowledge the way that this fight fits into a pattern of Saudi sportswashing”.

“Boxing is very much part of the Saudi sportswashing strategy under Mohammed bin Salman, dating back to at least Anthony Joshua’s fight with Andy Ruiz in 2019,” said Peter Frankental, Amnesty International UK’s economic affairs director.

“Glitzy events like Fury v Usyk are designed to rebrand Saudi Arabia as a ‘sporting hub’ while deflecting attention from the country’s jailing of women’s rights activists, suppression of free speech and rampant use of the death penalty.

“At the very same time that the Saudi sportswashing machine has cranked into high gear there’s been a widening crackdown on human rights defenders, including the recent 11-year jail sentence handed down against the fitness instructor Manahel al-Otaibi.

“The Leeds University student Salma al-Shehab has been jailed for 27 years for tweeting about women’s rights, while the retired teacher Mohammad bin Nasser al-Ghamdi faces execution for his peaceful remarks on Twitter and YouTube.”

Englishman Fury, 35, is the WBC champion and is undefeated in 35 fights with one draw.

Ukraine’s Usyk holds the WBA, IBF, WBO and Ring magazine titles and the 37-year-old has 21 wins and zero losses on his record.

Boxing is not the only sport Saudi Arabia has invested in heavily, with golf, tennis and F1 also staging massive events in the country.