Bob Arum says Eddie Hearn is intentionally stalling out the Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua fight because he doesn’t want to see AJ lose again. Arum states that if Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs) gets beaten by WBC heavyweight champion Fury, he’d be a “less valuable asset” to Hearn.
To be sure, Joshua has lost 3 out of his last 4 fights, and if he gets beaten by Fury, his career would be the equivalent of meteor dust. There would be no coming back from that loss, and it would be catastrophic for Joshua, Hearn, and Matchroom Boxing.
In fairness to Hearn, he seems interested in putting the fight together, but Fury, who is a nervous Nellie type, keeps making a mess of things with his deadlines. He won’t let his promoters do their job without him sticking his fingers into the pie and being a slob about it.
“What happened was because there were no issues that I could see; Eddie Hearn is stalling everything because he doesn’t want the fight to happen,” said Bob Arum to talkSPORT Boxing about the Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua fight.
“Why doesn’t he want the fight to happen? Because Joshua has lost three out of his last four fights, and he figures to lose again if he fights Tyson Fury. So, Eddie is being, in effect, an impediment. I don’t know of any issues.
“He sends a draft, and then Frank and George [Warren] reply, and then we don’t hear from Eddie for different days. He’s stalling until it dies of its own volition.
“I don’t think Joshua is a part of that. Joshua, for whatever reason, wants the fight to happen. I know Tyson Fury does, but Eddie doesn’t and Eddie is doing whatever he can to prevent the fight from happening. It’s as simple as that.
“From Eddie’s standpoint, he believes he has a valuable asset in Joshua, who has now lost, as I said, three out of four fights and figures to lose again, which would make it four out of five and would be a lot less valuable to him after the event. So, he’s trying to prevent it from happening.
“Well, of course, he’s going to be successful because you can’t make a fight unless somebody agrees to the contract. You put him in a torture chamber, and he still won’t agree to the contract. There are no issues. If there were some issues, then I could see it, but there are no issues.
“Get in a goddamn room with the Warrens, Frank & George, and sit down and finalize the contract and let’s get it signed,” said Arum.
