The proposed big fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua has been called off and the world champion is already in talks with other potential opponents, according to reports.
World Boxing Council champion Fury’s father, John, today blamed Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn for botching what was potentially the biggest fight in British history.
However, Hearn disagrees, insisting that he and his Nigerian-British client were bullied into dropping the bout, and the Fury camp has already lined up other fighters for the December date.
Hearn claimed Fury has sent contracts to Manuel Charr and Derek Chisora after ending talks with Joshua.
Fury had outlined his plans to come out of retirement by offering Joshua the chance to settle their feud on December 3 despite the latter having lost his past two fights to Oleksandr Usyk.
Former World Boxing Association, World Boxing Organisation and International Boxing Federation champion Joshua verbally accepted terms but missed two separate proposed deadlines to sign a contract.
Hearn insisted Fury’s timeframe for signing the contract was unrealistic and a ploy to avoid the fight.
“What sort of idiot have you got to be to think that I have any say over Joshua’s decisions? He accepted the deal and there were many of the terms of that agreement we weren’t crazy on,” Hearn told iFL TV today.
“But [Joshua] said to me ‘I’m in’. It’s never me trying to get AJ to pull out of the fight, he wants the fight but at the end of the day we’re not going to put up with some geezer on Instagram coming out every day saying ‘you’re an idiot, fights off, I’m fighting Manuel Charr.’
“When that happens, the other fighter which is AJ, turns round and says ‘let him go and fight Manuel Charr then’ and now Derek Chisora got a contract last week, so as far as AJ’s concerned ‘he’s offering Chisora the fight, let Delboy take it’. It just becomes really boring and I don’t want people to lose faith in boxing and lose faith in this fight.”
This is not the first time a potential fight between Britain’s two highest-profile boxers has failed to happen.
The two were on course for a £200m megabout in 2021 but they failed to agree terms and went on to face other opponents.
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