Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has scoffed as claims from Tyson Fury’s co-promoter Bob Arum that he would rather see the four-belt heavyweight unification showdown happen in the UK rather than another country regardless of how much money is on the table.
Saudi Arabia won the race to host the proposed fight in the summer with a reported site fee of upwards of $150m before the bout fell through after WBC champion Fury 30-0-1 (21) was ordered to face Deontay Wilder 42-1-1 (41) for a third time by an independent arbitrator.
Fury will clash with Wilder at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on October 9 while WBA, WBO and IBF champion Joshua 24-1 (22) will now face former undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk 18-0 (13) at Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium in Tottenham on September 25.
If the Joshua-Fury fight can be renegotiated, it is unlikely to happen before early next year.
“My hope is that the fight goes to the UK. I don’t care what the money is,” Arum said to Sky Sports this week. “Both fighters owe the UK fans this tremendous event at Wembley or Cardiff, rather than taking it to a foreign country.”
Now Eddie Hearn has used an interview with iFL TV to issue his reply.
“Do you honestly think Bob Arum would do the fight in the UK for half the money that is available elsewhere?” the Matchroom Boxing boss said.
“I’ve never heard so much bollocks in my life. ‘Yeah, let’s do it in the UK. The UK deserves it, man. I don’t see any problem making this fight.’ No problem at all. It’s been absolutely smooth, hasn’t it? I don’t even think [Arum] is intentionally lying.
“I just think it’s waffle. When the money comes through, what I’ll do is say, ‘Bob, I saw your quote where you said you really want this fight. So as long as your man is ready to take half the money. Are you good with that, yeah? That means half of your commission. Are you good with that, yeah?’ We’ll see.”
Hearn added that there is no point talking about the fight at this stage with both world titleholders deep in camp for upcoming fights against different opponents.
“That fight is not even worth discussing at the moment,” Hearn continued. “So they had their chance of making that fight, but they never had any intention or interest in making that fight.
“Now [Top Rank] want to talk about that fight to help build Fury against Wilder, which is as flat as a pancake.
“So, we’re fighting Usyk. Joshua is fighting Usyk on September the 25th at Tottenham’s football club in an absolutely massive fight.
“Gold medal vs gold medal. Unified heavyweight champion against undisputed cruiserweight champion. You do your thing, we’ll do ours.
“You win your fight and we’ll win ours and after that, we’ll talk to you about how keen you are about doing it in the UK as well in February.
“It’s a lovely time to do a fight in the UK obviously as well. Bob will definitely enjoy Wales for that one and then we’ll talk. But until then, don’t worry.
“We’ve got a massive fight to do. It’s going to sell out on the first day. It’s going to do huge numbers on TV.
“We’ll concentrate on our business. That’s probably what we should have done. Concentrate on what we do.”
