$360 million heavyweight showdown confirmed

Heavyweight champions Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury have signed a deal for two all-world title unification fights.

Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn confirmed an agreement had been reached between both parties with Saudi Arabia tipped to host both events.

"The hard part is always getting everybody to put pen to paper,"Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn told ESPN.

"But this was a major effort from all parties to get this over the line. You had rival promoters, rival networks and rival fighters."

The venue for the bouts will be confirmed "in the next few months" according to Hearn with Joshua's WBA, IBF and WBO titles and Fury's WBC belt on the line.

While the Joshua camp held its rematch against Andy Ruiz Jr in Saudi Arabia in December 2019, Hearn said several cities across the globe have expressed interest in staging the fight, from the Middle East, Asia, Eastern Europe and America.

Both fighters are expected to earn $180 million each, with the purse split 50-50 for the first fight and 60-40 for the rematch in favour of the defending champion.

Fury has not fought for more than a year since defeating Deontay Wilder in February 2020 to claim the WBC title. While Joshua defended his titles against Kubrat Pulev in London in December.

The announcement comes four days after a video of Fury emerged, stating the fight against Joshua was "nowhere near" to being finalised, and that he he had stopped training and was drinking heavily.

"Until I've got a date and a load of money in my pocket, there's no fight," Fury said. "A lot of things behind the scenes can scupper a fight like that. We're nowhere near at the moment. I've stopped training now, I'm on holiday. I'm doing anything between 10 to 12 pints of lager a day."