Eddie Hearn says Anthony Joshua is totally convinced that Tyson Fury and his team were never for one moment serious about putting a fight together with him.
In other words, they were only using his name to “clout chase” to get cheap attention without needing to take any risks.
Fury got the entire boxing world excited a week ago when he announced that the heavyweight undisputed fight with IBF/WBA/WBO champion Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs) was a done deal for August 14th in Saudi.
The fans were super excited about the prospects of seeing the two big British heavyweights battle it out for the #1 spot in the division. But then tragedy struck with Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs), shockingly losing his arbitration case.
“There was a lot of anger from everybody last week,” Hearn told IFL TV. “Me, AJ. just that these people, I can’t believe these people. [Anthony Joshu] felt all along that they didn’t want the fight.
“I felt differently. I didn’t feel it about their team – but I felt that Fury wanted the fight. Maybe he didn’t. Certain people didn’t want this fight, and they’ve got their way for now.”
Hearn says he was told all along by Team Fury that his arbitration case wouldn’t get in the way of the Joshua fight, and he naively believed them. In hindsight, Hearn says he wishes he hadn’t bought into what was being told to him.
After learning about the arbitration results, Hearn says he purposefully waited before finally speaking because he wanted to make sure he had all the information on what had happened.
Now that Hearn has had a week to digest the facts, such as they are, he’s concluded that Team Fury never wanted the fight to begin with. He points out that Fury’s promoter Bob Arum talked down the fight during his work to put together a site deal overseas.
“AJ feels that the entire team never wanted the fight, and they used his name for clout,” Hearn said.
Instead of staying sounding positive, Arum was downplaying the chances of the fight happening. The only conclusion that He can come up with is that Arum and Fury never wanted the fight with Joshua.
Moving forward, Hearn said that he no longer trusts Team Fury now. But interestingly, Hearn stopped short of saying that he never wants to deal with them again to make a fight between Joshua and Fury.
Indeed, Hearn said that he’ll still be interested in putting together a fight between Joshua and Fury in November or December when the smoke clears from their next fights.
Fury will be defending his WBC title against Deontay Wilder on July 24th at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. As for Joshua, he still doesn’t have an opponent picked out.
Hearn mentioned that Joshua would most likely face his WBO mandatory Oleksandr Usyk next on August 21st or 28th. If not Usyk, Hearn mentioned these fighters as possibilities for Joshua:
- Dillian Whyte
- Andy Ruiz Jr
- Luis Ortiz
