The heavyweight showdown between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua is on course to produce the biggest gate in British boxing history, with ticket sales projected at $34m (£26m).
British-Nigerian Joshua and Fury will meet on December 11 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, in a fight worth close to £150m to both fighters.
The rivalry has been more than a decade in the making.
About 80,000 tickets were sold in roughly an hour, with prices ranging from £80 to £13,000 for the best seats. More than 500,000 people were in the online queue.
Zuffa Boxing’s Dana White, who is involved in a personal capacity alongside Turki Alalshikh rather than as an official promoter, disclosed the projected figure. He told Sky Sports that fewer than 700 tickets remained.
“You can consider this thing a sellout already. We have this thing scaled for around $34 million,” White said.
The gate would top the British rankings, where Fury and Joshua already feature in the other two places in the top three. Joshua’s 2024 fight against Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium brought in £14m, while Fury’s win over Dillian Whyte at the same venue generated £12m.
Globally, the Cardiff fight will still fall short of the record. Floyd Mayweather’s clash with Manny Pacquiao leads with over $70m, followed by Mayweather’s 2017 fight against Conor McGregor at $55m. Canelo Alvarez’s bout with Terence Crawford in Las Vegas, which White was also involved in, made $47m.
Millions of viewers are expected to watch the Cardiff fight on Netflix.
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