Tickets for the highly anticipated heavyweight clash between British boxing rivals Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua sold out within an hour of going on sale earlier today, October 9, with more than 500,000 fans reportedly waiting in the online queue.
About 80,000 tickets were released for the December 11 fight at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, according to BBC Sport. The main event is expected to begin in the early hours of Saturday, December 12.
Tickets went on sale at 12:00 BST, with prices ranging from £88.50 to £13,128, including booking fees.
However, tickets quickly appeared on resale websites after the sell-out, with ringside VIP seats advertised for as much as £73,645, while upper-tier seats were listed for £425.
The fight, which will be broadcast globally on Netflix, was announced in September and is being promoted through a collaboration between Turki Alalshikh’s The Ring and Ultimate Fighting Championship chief Dana White. Fury, 38, and Joshua, 36, are both former two-time world champions.
Wembley Stadium in London and Madison Square Garden in New York were initially considered as potential venues before Cardiff emerged as the preferred location.
The Principality Stadium has previously hosted major late-night boxing events, including Joe Calzaghe’s fight against Mikkel Kessler in November 2007, which began at 01:00 GMT.
Similarly, Ricky Hatton’s victory over Kostya Tszyu at Manchester’s MEN Arena in 2005 started at approximately 02:00 local time to accommodate US broadcaster Showtime’s Saturday evening schedule.
The announcement of the Fury-Joshua bout followed uncertainty over its promotion, with Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, arguing that his fighter’s contract prevented White from taking on a promotional role.
Netflix had announced that Alalshikh’s The Ring and White would work together to promote the bout. The British rivals eventually met at a news conference on September 30 to begin the build-up to what is expected to be one of the biggest fights in British boxing history.
Fury and Joshua are reportedly set to share a purse worth close to $200 million.
The main event’s ringwalks are expected to begin at around 01:00 GMT on December 12, following a live music performance. The stadium is scheduled to remain open until 03:30 GMT.
Organisers have yet to announce the undercard fights.
