Tickets for the highly anticipated heavyweight clash between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua sold out within an hour of going on sale on Friday, as demand overwhelmed the online ticketing system.
Around 80,000 tickets for the all-British contest at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium went on sale at noon, with more than 500,000 people reportedly waiting in the online queue within minutes.
According to the BBC, ticket prices ranged from £88.50 to £13,128, including booking fees. Resale listings emerged shortly after the official sale closed, with ringside VIP seats advertised for as much as £73,645 and upper-tier seats listed at £425.
The event is scheduled to begin on Friday, December 11, but the main event is expected to take place in the early hours of Saturday, December 12. Ringwalks are planned for around 1am, subject to licensing approval, while the stadium is expected to remain open until 3.30am.
Netflix will broadcast the fight globally, although organisers have yet to announce the undercard.
Fury, 38, and Joshua, 36, are both former two-time world champions. Their long-awaited professional meeting was announced in September after years of speculation about a possible showdown.
Cardiff was selected as the venue after potential options, including Wembley Stadium in London and Madison Square Garden in New York, presented challenges.
The event is being promoted jointly by The Ring, associated with Saudi boxing powerbroker Turki Alalshikh, and UFC chief Dana White.
The promotional arrangement faced uncertainty shortly before the ticket sale after Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, argued that his fighter’s contract prevented White from taking a promotional role. Fury and Joshua subsequently met at a press conference on September 30 to begin the build-up to the contest.
The combined purse for the fight has reportedly been put at close to $200 million (£151 million), with each boxer said to be in line for approximately £75 million.
The planned late finish requires a one-off variation to the stadium’s premises licence. Millennium Stadium plc, which operates the venue, has applied to Cardiff Council to extend the permitted hours for boxing and wrestling until 3am, alongside extended hours for music, alcohol sales and late-night refreshments.
The application also provides for the stadium roof to remain closed, with additional security personnel and stewards deployed for the event.
The late start has drawn criticism from some British fans, who believe the timing has been arranged primarily to accommodate viewers in the United States. Netflix’s global broadcast is expected to attract a substantial American audience.
However, late-night boxing is not unprecedented in Britain. Joe Calzaghe’s fight against Mikkel Kessler began at 1am at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium in November 2007, while Ricky Hatton’s 2005 victory over Kostya Tszyu at Manchester’s MEN Arena started at around 2am local time to accommodate US broadcaster Showtime.
The Fury-Joshua bout is expected to draw a capacity crowd and stands as one of the most anticipated contests in British heavyweight boxing.
