The cold war between promotional rivals Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren continues to thaw with the former adversaries playing nice in recent times after Saudi money forced them to put their differences aside.
A little over a week ago WBC heavyweight titleholder Tyson Fury 34-0-1 (24) was forced to postpone his unification bout with WBA, WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine champion Oleksandr Usyk 21-0 (14) after he suffered a nasty cut over his right eye in one of his final sparring sessions for the February 17 bout in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The bout was quickly rescheduled for May 18, again in Saudi Arabia.
Just a few short months ago you would have expected Matchroom Boxing boss Hearn to antagonise Fury’s co-promoter Warren about the delay. And you would expect the Queensberry Promotions chief to retaliate with an attack on Hearn too.
That has long been the basis of the relationship between the pair but the introduction of Saudi gold to the equation has caused a dramatic reset in the status quo.
Fury has long been a target for Hearn too after years of negotiations failed to deliver a fight against his boxer, two-time WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua 27-3 (24).
In an interview with iFL TV this week, when Hearn was asked about his thoughts on the Usyk vs Fury fight being pushed back, he took the opportunity to praise the self-styled ‘Gypsy King’.
“I know that we’ve had our back and forths over the years, but I do have a lot of respect for him,” Hearn said.
“Firstly for what he did to get back to where he was. I think that was incredible. Two, I do rate him very highly as a fighter… I respect what he’s done.
“I respect him as a fighter. He’s a Brit, I want him to win. Of course, I also want AJ to beat [Francis] Ngannou and try and make AJ against Fury but I also respect Usyk. He worked with him for a long time and I think he’s an unbelievable person and an unbelievable fighter.
“But some people are a bit weird when they don’t want a specific person to win. I want Tyson Fury, a British fighter, to win that fight and go down as a real great. And I’m pleased that he’s taking that fight because I’ve said in interviews before, it was frustrating because that is the fight that will make him a great.
“I feel that beating [Wladimir] Klitschko was incredible. Beating [Deontay] Wilder, for me there are still some doubts over Wilder. But beating Usyk for the undisputed, that kind of leaves nothing to chance in terms of the debate about him being a great of our generation. So respect to him. It’s what boxing needs.”
