Eddie Hearn, Anthony Joshua’s promoter, has announced that the highly anticipated fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua has been cancelled due to a breakdown in negotiations.
The Matchroom promoter insists that the matter is still open for discussion and that the fight could be arranged at a later date, but that the fight is currently off.
“As far as we’re concerned the fight’s off. We’re happy to continue the discussions,” Hearn said to Sky Sports.
Hearn believes that Fury never really wanted the Joshua fight as he kept offering contracts to other fighters including Derek Chisora.
“In our mind, he is not fighting Anthony Joshua. We’re more than happy to continue those conversations, but what we have been told is the deadline is passed and so have the entire country. We have sent the final version of the contract back, they’ve come back with points and we were told that the fight is off by the man himself.
“They gave us terms ultimately and a date they thought we wouldn’t accept. We did accept that. We were ready to go. If they were to sign the contract on Monday, they had a fight. We were asked to agree on the deal by Monday, then we were asked to agree to it by Wednesday. We got the comments back on Wednesday.”
Hearn was annoyed by Fury’s deadlines and the insults he directed at his client.
“We were never going to sign the fight then, and we were told the fight’s off. It’s still there. It’s still open for discussion. But we’re not going to play a game with a bloke that’s just coming out telling Joshua it’s off, and then he’s a dosser, he’s got to sign it, etc. Have your fight if you fight someone else and we’ll do our thing and we’ll see what happens.”
He even added that Fury has moved on to another, less appealing match-up.
“At the weekend or Friday, Derek Chisora received a contract for the Tyson Fury fight.
“So have other fighters, so in our mind he’s not fighting Joshua.”
Fury had issued a surprising challenge to the British-Nigerian following Joshua’s failed attempts at winning back his belts from Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk and boxing fans had looked forward to the fight slated for December 3 in Cardiff.
However, talks dragged on for weeks amidst public callouts from Fury before Hearn revealed that the fight is off.