Eddie Hearn makes ‘immediate’ claim to Tyson Fury over Anthony Joshua fight
Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn has given an update on the long-awaited showdown between his fighter, Anthony Joshua, and Tyson Fury, who may both have just one fight left
Eddie Hearn has told Tyson Fury a long-awaited dream fight with Anthony Joshua can happen “immediately”.
Both British fighters are coming off heavyweight title defeats, with Joshua being brutally knocked out by Daniel Dubois at Wembley and Fury losing his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia just before Christmas. Fans have craved a Joshua-Fury showdown for years and despite both men being past their prime and there being no belts on the line, it would still be a mouth-watering and financially-lucrative prospect.
Joshua has made it clear he wants the fight while Fury’s plans, just a few weeks on from the Usyk defeat, are still up in the air. If the Gypsy King, 36, does decide to fight on, Joshua’s promoter, Hearn, says talks can start straight away, with Saudi its likely destination.
“It’s the fight that everyone wants. Tell me a bigger fight? There isn’t one,” Hearn told The Stomping Ground on YouTube. “I don’t know if it’s going to happen.
“There have been no discussions. Fury’s coming off that defeat and after his break, he’s going to decide what he wants to do. If he wants to fight AJ, the fight happens immediately. We’ll see.”
Hearn stressed it was too soon to start applying pressure to the Fury camp. He added: “I don’t think it’s the time to start prodding Tyson Fury. Don’t forget, he lost on December 21, so give him a few weeks to chill out.
“Sooner or later, in the coming weeks, we will want to put a plan together for Anthony Joshua. That is when the conversations will come with Frank Warren, Spencer Brown [Fury’s manager] and His Excellency [Turki Alalshikh] and say, ‘we want to make AJ-Fury – what do you think? We’ll go from there.”
Warren, Fury’s promoter, also says he won’t be applying any pressure to his fighter to face Joshua or anyone else. He wrote in his Daily Star column: “I will not be picking up the phone and asking Tyson Fury to fight again.
“If opportunities come my way for him they will be passed on, but there will be no advice from me on whether or not Tyson should take them.
“I haven’t spoken to him yet about an Anthony Joshua fight and I will only do so if he comes to me and says he wants to get in the ring with him.”
