Promoter Eddie Hearn says he has no Plan-B option in case he’s unable to finalize the Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury heavyweight mega-fight between them for July or August.
It will be a disaster for IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Joshua if Hearn fails to get the fight done with Fury. The options for Joshua are pretty bleak.
He would likely need to face his crafty WBO mandatory Oleksandr Usyk next, and that’s a fight that would be difficult for him.
More importantly, it’s a match-up that wouldn’t interest the boxing public a great deal, as the former undisputed cruiserweight champion Usyk isn’t a highly popular fighter.
A trilogy match with former three-belt heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr could be a decent Plan-B option for Joshua. However, it’s not a great fight because the heavyset American still hadn’t faced anyone since his loss to AJ over a year ago in December 2019. Ruiz has been inactive, out of sight, out of mind for boxing fans.
Although Ruiz is coming back this Saturday night on Fox Sports pay-per-view, he’s facing 40-year-old Chris Arreola rather than one of the relevant top five heavyweights.
Given Ruiz’s lack of fights, it would be a poor choice for Joshua to fight if his match against Fury falls through.
Hearn states that he’s putting all his eggs in one basket to get this fight made, and if it fails to happen, he doesn’t have a fallback plan for AJ.
While both Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs) and Fury have signed the contract for their fight, they still need to agree on the site location and the date. Without that getting done, there is no fight between them this summer.
Hearn says he spoke to WBC heavyweight champion Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs), and he feels confident that he’s going to stay the course and no pull out of the fight.
The site is already agreed on, according to Hearn. He’s looking to finalize the deal, and he’s currently working on a draft of the contract to get it signed.
“Time is of the essence. Literally, we are in the second or third round of the final site long-form agreement,” said Hearn to Sky Sports on the Joshua vs. Fury fight. “Hopefully, this week, we can be in a position where it is all done.
“It’s never done until the ink is dry, but there are no obstacles to overcome, except to finalize the paperwork and get it announced.
“I’ve not seen a fight fall through at this stage before. We’re on the verge now. But we still have to finish the job, and that’s the plan for this week.
“There is no Plan B. I’m a guy who loves to have a Plan B. But all our eggs are in this basket,” said Hearn.
Well, a rematch between Joshua and Dillian Whyte would be of interest to British boxing fans, but not so much with Americans. They haven’t seen enough of Whyte for them to be excited at seeing a rematch.
Also, the U.S fans that have seen Whyte remember him well from his knockout loss to 41-year-old Alexander Povetkin last year.
While Dillian did avenge his loss to Povetkin last month in stopping him in the fourth round in Gibraltar, he did it after the Russian fighter had suffered COVID 19 months earlier.
It was pretty obvious from watching Povetkin’s performance that he wasn’t the same guy due to the after-effects of recovering from his long illness. Povetkin literally looked like someone that had been terribly ill recently and wasn’t in the best shape possible to be taking on a top heavyweight in an important fight.