Roy Jones Jr believes Eddie Hearn has just wagered his company’s long-term future to keep one heavyweight fight at home.
Hearn refused to move Joshua vs. Fury out of the United Kingdom, and the compromise now on the table is a Friday-night bout on December 11 at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, with a ring walk pushed into the early hours of local time to slot the event into a US prime-time window on Netflix. According to a Field Level Media wire report on September 20, the fight is worth close to $200 million, with Netflix supplying broadcast rights and financial backing alongside Saudi Arabia’s Turki Al-Sheikh and Sela, the entertainment company owned by the country’s Public Investment Fund.
Principality Stadium, which holds 73,931 fans, was chosen for its retractable roof and its willingness to entertain a late curfew exemption from the Welsh government. Wembley Stadium, Joshua’s original preference, operates under an 11 p.m. curfew that could not be reconciled with Netflix’s US window.
“A battle won, a war lost”
Joshua’s contract required a UK venue, and Hearn held the line despite pressure from Al-Sheikh, Sela, Netflix, TKO president Dana White and Fury’s team. Jones, speaking to BoxingScene, applauded the stance and then punctured it in the same breath.
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“Hearn has won a battle, but he’s gonna lose the war,” Jones told the outlet, arguing that “Turki has enough money to do whatever he wants to do.”
“My hat goes off to Eddie for fighting, because Eddie knows that war is not the best thing for boxing,” he added.
Zuffa Boxing is already peeling off the roster
Al-Sheikh’s Saudi-TKO joint venture, Zuffa Boxing, has spent 2026 signing fighters away from Matchroom’s stable. Front Office Sports reported in April that Conor Benn had left Matchroom for Zuffa and that Hearn criticized the strategy publicly. The same reporting noted that only “sufficient financial incentives” pulled Matchroom and Al-Sheikh back to the same table for the Fury superfight, a partnership that could collapse again if the Saudi camp decides Hearn is more obstacle than ally.
Joshua at 36, Fury at 38
Joshua is 36 and coming off a sixth-round knockout of Jake Paul at the Kaseya Center in Miami last December, a right hand that broke Paul’s jaw in two places. The performance gave Matchroom a Netflix-scale main event but told the sport very little about where Joshua stands against elite heavyweights.
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Fury is 38 and returned from his second loss to Oleksandr Usyk with two Netflix-staged tune-ups in 2026, stopping Arslanbek Makhmudov in April and outpointing Mariusz Wach in July. Cardiff will be his first fight at world-title level since Usyk II, and the biggest gate of Hearn’s promotional career.
An official announcement is expected once Cardiff finalizes permits covering policing, alcohol sales, noise restrictions and the late ring walk.
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