Home Boxing News Frank Warren lashes Eddie Hearn for premature Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua...

Frank Warren lashes Eddie Hearn for premature Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua announcement

Tyson Fury with promoter Frank Warren. Photo credit: Getty Images

Team Fury has hit out at Eddie Hearn for prematurely revealing that the heavyweight unification bout between his fighter Anthony Joshua 24-1 (22) and Tyson Fury 30-0-1 (21) had been signed.

The Matchroom Boxing boss delivered the highly anticipated news in an interview with ESPN this week.

The date and venue for the fight are yet to be decided but it is expected to be in the Middle East. The purse will be split 50-50 with the winner guaranteed a 60-40 share in the return bout.

Frank Warren, who co-promotes Fury with Bob Arum, was less than impressed with Hearn speaking to the media about the fight prior to the official announcement.

“Everybody signed an agreement that there would be no announcements unless they were joint announcements and that came out the blue yesterday,” Warren told talkSPORT.

“We are all not happy but it is out there now – there is nothing we can do about that.

“But there is a long way to go yet in as much we have to sort out venues. We have a couple venues we are looking at and that is where we are.

“I believe it will happen when they get in the ring. We’ve still got a way to go. But everybody is on the same page to make this work.

“We are all collectively working to get a venue sorted now.”

Hearn defended his actions.

“Yesterday’s interview, not announcement, interview with ESPN was, we didn’t want to make a big formal announcement and a fuss,” he told iFL TV.

“But I wanted to let everyone know. I spoke to Fury’s team and they were happy to convey to everybody that everybody had signed because it’s good news.

“It’s called momentum, it’s excitement. There are still hurdles to overcome.

“We’ve still got to go out and decide where this is going to take place but we are moving in the right direction in terms of dates. It’s momentum, it’s good news.

“You guys have been waiting for good news and we’ve kept saying ‘two weeks, two weeks’ but when you get a fight as big as this, with the two fighters and all the teams putting pen to paper, let’s celebrate it and let’s move forward and get this done. That’s what we intend to do.”

Hearn added: “I think Frank said ‘it was agreed we would do announcements’ there wasn’t an announcement, I confirmed with Fury’s team and they were happy for that to be mentioned.

“So that’s what happened. It wasn’t a case of meeting tweeting ‘IT’S ON!’, it was just ‘I’ve heard you’ve all signed now, is that correct?’ and ‘yes we have signed we’re now moving forward to confirm the date and the venue’.

“And I think we should celebrate it, myself, Anthony, 258 Management have worked really hard to get this done.

“So we have still got work to do but how good is it that everybody has put pen to paper? Nobody can be accused of not trying to get this done from our side or their side. Now we’ve got to go and finish the job.”