I had no idea the Fury Wilder contract thing had gone to arbitration. You'd think Bob and Frank would have had something from Wilder in writing saying he wouldn't exercise his clause if they're negotiating for a Joshua fight.

Things we know.

Bob and Frank's lawyers will have advised them that Wilder might be able to throw a spanner in the works before they started negotiating with Hearn even if they didn't know that anyway.

They still went ahead and did it. So did Hearn, who would have been similarly advised.

This leads you to believe that they were always considering the option of paying Wilder to step aside if he won the arbitration decision.

They're now saying they're not going to pay step aside money and are trying to sell Wilder on a fight with the winner.

In boxing promoters will always make the biggest available payday in a situation like this particularly when the payday is so big. There have been reports that Saudi are offering a hundred and fifty million site fee. Then add on forty or fifty global telly money.

Wilder's step aside demand begins to look like excellent value for money especially when it's an initial offer. He'd probably settle for ten.

Bob and Frank and Tyson are set for a gigantic payday that dwarfs anything they've made before. Frank doesn't make the fight, Fury blows it against Wilder and Frank is back doing shows at the Copper Box. Not so bad for Arum but the man is an accountant, he's purely about the money and the money decision here is obvious. From a financial and a sporting viewpoint the decision for Fury is obvious too.

Assuming the Saudi number is anywhere close to reports -- and it could be a fraction of that and so much smaller to the extent it changes all the calculations above -- I would expect some kind of deal to be done between Wilder and BFT sooner rather than later.