Eddie Hearn hasn’t stopped believing, or hoping, that his man Anthony Joshua will fight Tyson Fury before both men retire. It’s been a massive fight all UK fans and more have wanted to see for years, and Hearn has said he is all but convinced Fury, who announced his umpteenth retirement a while back, will not actually retire for good without having fought AJ.
Now, speaking again with Ariel Helwani, Hearn says he envisages Joshua fighting Fury twice, before “sailing off into the sunset.” Hearn said that in his mind, Joshua will likely retire next year sometime.
Hearn on Fury vs. Joshua
“AJ will have been out of the ring just over a year by the time he steps back into the ring,” Hearn said to Helwani’s YouTube channel. “He’ll be coming off surgery. I don’t think Tyson Fury will be ready to fight around that time. I imagine it will be someone who gears him up for a really big fight in 2026. 2026 will probably be his last year in the sport.
Thinking about it [retirement], it’s probably three fights away. If I’m advising AJ, ‘We’re back this year, we have two Tyson Fury fights, and what else is there to do? Maybe fight Daniel Dubois. Once AJ fights Tyson Fury, he’s done it all. Something feels right about coming back this year, fighting Tyson Fury twice next year, and then sailing off into the sunset.”
It sure would be interesting to hear what Fury thinks about what Hearn has said here, if Fury actually reads or hears what Hearn has said. Is Fury serious about his retirement this time, and will he be laughing at Hearn’s suggestion of him fighting AJ once, let alone twice? Of course, fans continue to ask for a Joshua-Fury fight, but will it happen?
Hearn has now ramped things up quite a notch by calling for two fights. But if AJ cannot get a date with Fury, who might those final three fights of his be against? If Dubois manages to defeat Oleksandr Usyk, he will have mandatory duties to attend to, so that fight may not happen. Might AJ land a fight with Deontay Wilder? Or perhaps Joshua could fight for a vacant belt should Usyk defeat Dubois again in July and then opt to vacate one or two of the four world titles he would be holding.
But for Hearn, it’s that Fury fight, or fights, that need to be made.