Barry Hearn, the father of promoter Eddie Hearn, admitted that he doubts the possibility of organizing a megafight between British heavyweights Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury next year.
The President of Matchroom Boxing, Barry Hearn, is ‘doubtful’ that Anthony Joshua will step in the ring to fight Tyson Fury in a full division unification.
A few months ago, the two champions were close to reaching an agreement to collide on a date in August in Saudi Arabia.
The fight fell apart when an arbitrator ordered Fury to honor a rematch clause due to Deontay Wilder.
Joshua will now defend his IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO heavyweight titles against mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk on September 25.
And Fury will make a defense of his WBC strap against Wilder on October 9.
Should both champions come away with victories, there will be heavy interest in having them collide in the first half of 2022.
But the elder Hearn is not convinced the fight will actually come off next year.
“I’m doubtful,” Barry Hearn told Betfred TV at the Betfred World Matchplay.
“Eddie thinks it will, but then the money that was available last time didn’t do it. I really hope we do, maybe I’m just getting old and cynical but I really just don’t believe anybody anymore. I listen to a load of rubbish and I am getting to the age where I just don’t want to listen to it anymore.
“I want to say ‘put up or shut up’. Get in the ring, give the public what they want. I know AJ is 100 percent there, and wants to do it tomorrow. So let’s hope Tyson Fury comes through with the same thought process as well. Best of luck to him should he ever fight Deontay Wilder as well.”
Fury was initially scheduled to face Wilder on July 24. The fight was postponed to October after Fury came down with COVID-19.
However, Barry Hearn agrees with his son Eddie, who believes the event was delayed due to poor tickets sales – which the Fury camp aggressively denied.
“If you have got any common sense, don’t listen to all this nonsense about ‘we’d sold £15 million worth of tickets’ – you can check the inventory online. You don’t have to make up things like that. The British public are not idiots, they know,” Barry Hearn said.