Eddie Hearn Says Discussions on Fury v Joshua Have Ceased
On the heels of Anthony “AJ” Joshua’s (24-3, 22 KO’s) last defeat, he was unexpectedly offered a major fight. That match was presented by WBC heavyweight champion Tyson “The Gypsy King” Fury (32-0-1, 23 KO’s). From the very beginning of the talks however, Fury repeatedly gave rather unreasonable deadlines. On top of that, The Gypsy King kept taking to his social media to say the fight was off even though the two teams were still in negotiations. Now however, Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, has confirmed that the fight is officially dead.
According to Hearn, he has now been waiting for several days to hear something from the other camp without success. Given how tumultuous the negotiations have been to date, Hearn is not inclined to persist with this uphill battle.
“We get another one [deadline], Tyson Fury says, ‘We’re telling you now, the fight is off unless you sign [today]. That deadline passed, I’ve not heard back from George Warren since. So as far as we’re concerned, the fight’s off. We’re happy to continue the discussions, we haven’t had any of those discussions.”
“So, it’s still there. It’s still open for discussions. But we’re not gonna play a game with a bloke that’s just coming out telling AJ it’s off and then he’s a dosser and he’s gotta sign it. Have your fight if you wanna fight someone else and we’ll do our thing, and we’ll see what happens.”
SWING AND A MISS!
Truthfully speaking, while this was a fun match to think about, this was always going to be a hard sell. Given the name value of the two principal characters and all the moving parts of such a big fight, this soggy conclusion is not all that surprising. Now we shall have to wait and see what Fury’s next move will be.
It was Fury, not AJ, who was stressing about fighting before the end of the year. Will he still rush to find another adversary or sit out the remainder of the year? As for Joshua, it’s all but a guarantee he will ride the pine until 2023. Perhaps these two goliaths will fight, but now is not the time!
By: Bakari Simpson
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