Eddie Hearn Breaks Down Joshua and Fury Agreeing To Terms
The boxing world is still buzzing over the June 10 announcement that WBA/WBO/IBF World Heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (32-1, 21 KOs) and WBC Heavyweight Tyson Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) have agreed to terms to fight each other in 2021.
Everything is contingent on both men winning their next fights. Joshua has an upcoming mandatory defense against Kubrat Pulev, while Fury’s next fight is the trilogy against former WBC Heavyweight titlist Deontay Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs).
If both men are successful, the heavyweight world champs will fight twice in 2021 according to the terms, with their first bout scheduled to take place during the summer of that year.
Matchroom Boxing CEO Eddie Hearn (promoter of Joshua) acknowledges there’s still work to do to finalize things. But in principle, both men have come to terms from a financial perspective. During an exclusive interview on his YouTube channel, Hearn gave some insight on the behind the scenes negotiations.
“There have been conversations between myself and Team Fury for a few months now regarding this fight. This week, we both had an agreement where we would move forward with the financial agreement in terms of the split for the first fight and the second fight.
And now we have to move forward on the remaining issues, particularly where this fight’s gonna take place. We have a couple of interests in discussions about broadcasters and other obstacles to overcome.
But both guys got to focus on Kubrat Pulev for Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder or Dillian Whyte, depending on what happens for Tyson Fury.
I think for the fighters the focus is to remain calm, focus on the job at hand, and let the work take place behind the scenes to make sure now that we dot all the I’s and cross all the T’s to complete everything.”
Hearn’s ideal locale for the fights would be in the UK. However, he admits offers are coming from around, including China and Saudia Arabia (where Joshua regained the heavyweight titles against Andy Ruiz in December 2019). And because of that, he and Fury’s handlers are weighing all options. He also said he does not see any prevailing issues about the networks (Joshua fights for DAZN while Fury is signed to ESPN/Top Rank).
THE DILLIAN WHYTE SITUATION
With the announcement of Joshua and Fury agreeing to fight twice next year, where does this leave Dillian Whyte (27-1, 18 KOs) who is the mandatory contender for Fury’s WBC belt? Hearn, who happens to also promote Whyte, clarified the situation.
“Well Dillian Whyte is the Mandatory for the WBC world title and we’ve written to the WBC that this must happen before the end of February (2021). So certainly if the Fury – Wilder fight didn’t place for any reason, Dillian must take that fight.
If they (Fury and Wilder) do fight in October or November, he (Whyte) is due to fight before the end of February for that WBC title. We will be pushing that mandatory.
We know that the biggest fight in boxing is the undisputed heavyweight championship and of course, people want to see that fight.
This isn’t just a case of saying to Dillian ‘sorry mate, you gotta wait a little bit longer’. We’ve written to the WBC and so have Dillian’s lawyers and their ruling is that the fight must take place before the end of February.”
And what if Wilder turns around and defeats Fury later this year? According to Hearn, the focus will then be towards making a fight between Joshua and Wilder.
But for the time being, it looks like all intentions are pitting Joshua and Fury in the ring. Should things come to fruition, this is a mouthwatering fight that would come at just the right time, as the sport is coming back from dealing with the current COVID-19 pandemic.
By: Michael Wilson Jr.
