Legendary boxing promoter Bob Arum has blasted fellow kingpin Eddie Hearn, blaming him for the collapse in negotiations over a deal for Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua to face off in a massive heavyweight bout.
Fans have been hoping for years to see the two British superstars – both two-time World Champions – come together in the ring.
Those hopes were reignited when WBC champion Fury (32 wins, one draw) backflipped on a brief retirement following his recent win over Dillian Whyte, setting up a big-money bout with 24-3 Joshua.
But talks between Fury’s promoter Arum and Joshua’s in Hearn broke down, with Fury now set to defend his world title in a trilogy Derek Chisora on December 3.
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And speaking to Fox Sports’ Main Event Podcast, Arum didn’t hold back on Hearn for his role in the failed negotiations.
Arum said: “Obviously Fury wanted to fight Joshua. And I really believe Joshua wanted to fight Fury.
“But his promoter Eddie Hearn slow-walked the deal because he was really not anxious for that fight to be made. Because Joshua has lost three out of his last five fights, and to put him in with a killer like Fury is pretty reckless.”
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Arum claimed that Hearn had ‘no intention’ of making a deal.
“I think Eddie said he was interested, but we could never get back documents, we never could really contact (him).
“I’ve been in this business for over 60 years, so I know when another promoter really has no intention to make a fight.
“As far as I was concerned there were no issues, once it was agreed on a 60/40 (purse) split, and once the television networks had agreed who would do what, there were no other issues.
“I mean, just get a contract back and sign it! But that proved to be impossible because Hearn didn’t want the fight to happen.
“I really can’t blame him but he didn’t have to jerk us around the way he did.”
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If he was in charge of Joshua, Arum says he would: “Give him some fights, get his confidence back. He’s a pretty good fighter although he hasn’t shown it recently.
“After losing twice to (Oleksandr) Usyk, who is a much smaller guy, and losing one out of two with Andy Ruiz, who isn’t the greatest fighter in the world, the lustre is off Joshua, although he remains extraordinarily popular in the United Kingdom.”
If Fury beats Chisora for a third time – as widely expected – the obvious next fight would be a world title unification bout with Usyk, who owns the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO, and The Ring titles.
35-year-old Usyk was the unified cruiserweight champion before moving up to heavy and taking down Joshua via unanimous decision last year, and won the rematch in Jeddah in August via split decision.
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Arum said Usyk posed the biggest challenge to Fury, but backed the ‘Gypsy King’ to prevail again.
“I talked today with Usyk’s manager, they’re all very good friends of mine, Usyk and his manager Egis Klimas. Egis manages Lomachenko and Usyk is Lomachenko’s best friend and comes to all of Loma’s fights so I’ve got to know him pretty well.
“We hope that that fight can be staged sometime late February, early March.”
“To tell you the truth, I like Tyson Fury in the fight. But you never can discount Usyk – in the same way that Mr Putin (Russian President Vladimir Putin) has learnt that you can’t discount the Ukrainians. They’re terrific fighters, they’ve got big hearts, very intelligent. If anybody is going to spring an upset and beat Tyson Fury it’s Oleksandr Usyk.”
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