Hearn Floats Idea Of A Fury-Joshua Summer Fight, “If Oleksandr Usyk Doesn’t Fight Tyson Fury Next”
Though it has not been finalised yet, it is hoped the big heavyweight unification showdown between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk WILL be finalised, finally, this week. Usyk’s guy Egis Klimas is in the UK, with the two sides currently trying to settle any remaining issues that need ironing out; these being, basically, money issues, with the two sides apparently haggling over which man deserves the lion’s share of the purse split.
BUT, in case the fight does not get done (and the longer it drags on, the more fans will likely get worried), Eddie Hearn has a plan. Speaking with IFL TV, Hearn said his fighter Anthony Joshua would be willing to step in and face Fury this summer. We fans thought – or were tricked into believing – Fury and Joshua would fight back in December, with talk of the fight ultimately coming to nothing; Fury fighting Dereck Chisora instead, in February, and Joshua sitting out the remainder of 2022.
Now, Hearn is floating the idea of the all-British super fight again.
“Don’t be surprised – I don’t know what’s gonna happen with this Usyk thing – he [Joshua] may fight Fury next,” Hearn said. “We’d be open to that fight. If Oleksandr Usyk doesn’t fight Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua will fight Tyson Fury next, in the summer. How about that? Stick that in your pipe and smoke it. He will. If that fight doesn’t happen, we’ll take the Fury fight. Don’t be surprised to see that fight in the summer if the other one doesn’t happen.”
But of course we all WOULD be surprised, massively so, if Fury did end up fighting Joshua this summer. We’ve been here before. At this point, it’s talk and nothing more from Hearn – what if AJ lost Jermain Franklin on April 1? Would Fury ever agree to fight Joshua, this without setting some kind of crazy deadline, as he did in the run-up to the “fight” that was, we believed, a real possibility for December last year?
Again, hopefully sense will prevail and the Fury-Usyk fight will get done, and soon. This is the fight we all want to see. Sure, Fury-Joshua would be a great replacement if the unification clash didn’t happen, but can you really see Fury and Joshua fighting any time, let alone this summer? Fury has gone on record has saying he will “never” fight Joshua. Then again, Fury also said that he would not be satisfied if he never fought Joshua.
Fury did tell us all last week how he doesn’t know what’s going on with regards to his next fight. “Ask the promoters,” Fury told us we should do if we wanted to know what his next fight would be. Now into mid-February, we’re still asking the powers that be if the Fury-Usyk fight will happen!