Eddie Hearn has provided an update on the potential of his star man, Anthony Joshua, challenging for Tyson Fury’s WBC Heavyweight World Title this year.
The all-British fight is one fans see as essential before either man retires, and, despite frustratingly failed negotiations last year, the idea has presented itself once more off the back of Joshua’s recent win and Fury’s collapsed talks to face Oleksandr Usyk.
Joshua beat Jermaine Franklin via unanimous decision to return to winning ways, and called out Fury in the aftermath, well aware that the champion is currently without a dance partner.
In discussing their future plans with IFL TV, Hearn revealed that he received an unexpected phone call from Fury’s US promoter, Bob Arum, recently.
“We’ve just got to decide what type of fight we want for July. Do we go straight into a massive fight now? Bob Arum phoned me the other day, which was quite a surprise. Just talking about AJ Fury, he said what are you thinking?
And I said I don’t know really. We’re all up for discussing the fight. I don’t think there’s going to be a major site fee in July, but we’re still willing to look at the numbers, or if you want to wait and do it later in the year we’re up for that too.”
Who knows what’s gonna happen with Usyk, with Wilder. We’re gonna have to see. But AJ’s gonna fight in July, 100%.”
Dillian Whyte is still the frontrunner for a fight with Joshua, especially after many pundits advised him to take another fight under new coach, Derrick James, before stepping up to Fury.
That could well be the July fight Hearn promised, with ‘The Gypsy King’ targeted for a big money winter showdown in the Middle East. Of course, the heavyweight division can throw up many potential scenarios to scupper those plans.
Still, given the hostile relationship between Hearn and Arum in the past, this line of communication can only be a good thing.