Home Boxing News Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury: Only minor details remain to be resolved

Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury: Only minor details remain to be resolved

Promoter Eddie Hearn has met with Anthony Joshua to go through the minor details that need to be resolved before final signoff for the Tyson Fury fight.

WBA, WBO and IBF champion Joshua 24-1 (22) and WBC counterpart Fury 30-0-1 (21) are expected to fight twice this year with the first bout likely for June.

“Contracts have been backwards and forwards,” Hearn told Sky Sports. “Only minor details to be resolved on both ends. We’re in a good place.

“AJ was in the office yesterday with us. We had a good meeting to finalise our side of stuff.”

No venue has been confirmed but several countries are in the running to host the fight, including Saudi Arabia, United States, Qatar, Dubai, Singapore and China.

“I hate saying two weeks, but two weeks (until an announcement),” said Hearn.

“We’re on the verge now of getting this fight done. We want to make sure the ink is dry, and then we’ll go out and finalise the site details.

“I’m going to keep quiet for now, which probably won’t last for too long, but in the meantime working hard to finalise what is the absolute biggest fight in boxing.”

The Matchroom Boxing boss revealed earlier this week that Fury’s American co-promoter Bob Arum has told him to stop talking to the media about the fight.

“Bob Arum phoned me two nights ago and said look ‘I think you should stop talking about Fury-Joshua,’” Hearn told Betfred TV, impersonating Arum’s voice as he did so. “I said ‘Why?’ and he said ‘Well if you do then I’m going to have to talk about it,’ I said ‘But I’m getting asked about it 10 times a day, what do you want me to say?’”

“The truth is we’ve sent a contract to Bob Arum and Top Rank, they have come back with their points which are quite minimal and we are working through them.

“I mean, I keep saying ‘two weeks’ so I’ll stay safe and say two weeks, but our plan is to get this fight announced, to let the public know that both guys have signed for this fight, and then we will go out and talk to the relevant sites and countries where we have had approaches for, [before we confirm] the official site and the date.

“So that will be the process and hopefully you will get that first announced, done and dusted, in the next two weeks.”

Joshua, 31, was last in action when he knocked out IBF mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev in nine rounds in London last December while the 32-year-old Fury has not fought since knocking out Deontay Wilder in seven rounds in Las Vegas in February last year.

The winner of the all-British showdown will be the first universally recognised heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis.