Eddie Hearn Hints That Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua Could Happen This Summer
Promoter Eddie Hearn says his fighter, Anthony “AJ” Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs), is more than ready to battle WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs), should Fury’s plans to face reigning unified champ Oleksandr Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) fall through.
Fury and Usyk are currently in talks to meet each other. Fury’s representatives even proposed April 29 as a date at Wembley Stadium in England, but the proposed matchup has yet to be finalized. Word on the street is they’ve hit a bump in the road in negotiations.
READY TO STEP IN
Joshua has an upcoming bout against Jermaine Franklin on April 1. But during an interview with UK media source iFL TV, Hearn dropped a bombshell.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen with this Usyk thing . . . If Usyk doesn’t fight Fury, AJ will fight Fury next, in the Summer, if he gets through Franklin. How about that? Stick that in your pipe and smoke it. He will. I have no idea if Fury-Usyk is going to happen . . . I’m telling you that if that fight doesn’t happen, we will take the Fury fight.”
HEARN THINKS SOMETHING IS OFF
When asked if he thinks Fury – Usyk will occur, Hearn is skeptical. He believes the reason is that Fury demands to be the A-side and deserves the greater percentage of a purse split. Hearn questions if that fight happens in England given what Fury is asking for financially.
If Joshua scores an impressive win against Franklin, the two-time unified champion puts himself right back into the heavyweight picture. Despite losing twice to Usyk, Joshua is still a major cash cow in the division and has more star power than the reigning unified champ. So from a commercial and financial perspective, Hearn makes a valid argument in saying that Fury would make more dollars fighting AJ this summer than he would in a fight with Usyk.
While Hearn admits he’s just giving his opinion on the matter of Usyk and Fury, his years in the business suggest something could be amiss. If Hearn is talking this way publicly, likely, he’s not blowing smoke. This is something worth keeping an eye on, for sure. Stay tuned to 3KingsBoxing for more details on this very fluid situation.
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