By Scott Gilfoid: Eddie Hearn says Tyson Fury messaged him this week about making a fight against IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. Hearn says he wants Fury to get on the phone and call him pronto so they can put the Joshua-Fury fight together. Hearn states that he thinks he can put the Joshua vs. Fury fight together in five minutes if he calls him up so they can talk.
Joshua (22-0, 21 KOs) is fighting on April 13 at Wembley Stadium, and he still doesn’t have an opponent. Hearn needs to get someone quick to help fill that giant stadium. Hearn doesn’t seem interested in getting WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder to take the fight. That’s the guy that the wily Hearn has continually said is the #1 priority for Joshua to fight on April 13. The boxing sees that are more lip service from Hearn. Like fans saw recently, Hearn negotiated with Wilder for months, and then had Joshua pull out of the negotiations suddenly and fight 39-year-old Alexander Povetkin last September.
“I don’t know Tyson Fury’s contractual situation,” Hearn said to @Talksport. “He [Fury] messaged me the other day to talk about the [AJ] fight. The quickest way to make a fight for Fury against Joshua is to call me. Me and AJ will come round, see Tyson and get it done in five minutes,” Hearn said.
It would be a major coup for Hearn to sign Fury for a fight against Joshua on April 13. Most boxing fans are expecting Fury to fight Wilder again to try and clear up the controversy of their fight last week on December 1. The fight was scored a 12 round split draw. Fury has chosen not to take the high road by showing class by saying that he gave it his best shot, but Wilder was able to even the fight out in the championship rounds. Instead of being a good sport, Fury has been grumbling something awful about the decision, and sounding like a spoiled brat that didn’t get his way.
It’ll reflect on Fury if he walks away from the Wilder fight and instead faces Joshua next. It won’t help Fury by repeating his blather about how the boxing world knows who won the fight. The fans are saying Fury was lucky he survived the 12th round knockdown. He was out cold after Wilder landed a beautiful right-left combination that dropped Fury like a sack of rocks on the canvas. Fury was so hurt that he didn’t even brace his fall. He just fell hard back-first on the canvas and laid there motionless for what appeared to be at least three seconds. The referee stood over Fury counting and it looked like a picture out of the 1930s, when referees would give counts to fighters that were knocked out. Needless to say, Fury was very, very lucky that he had Jack Reiss as his referee rather than a different guy.
The problem that Hearn has is he would likely not be willing to offer Fury a fair deal for the Joshua fight. If Hearn is tight-fisted when it comes to offering Fury a percentage split for the Joshua fight, he’s going to walk away in disgust and take the rematch with Deontay Wilder instead. It’s almost predictable that Hearn will start talking about how Fury hasn’t brought in the same kinds of crowds that Joshua has. if all Hearn is going to offer Fury is a 70-30 deal, the fight with Joshua isn’t going to get made.
Joshua has become the forgotten man
It makes great publicity for Hearn to be name dropping Fury’s name in association with Joshua, who has largely been forgotten by the boxing public lately. With all the interest the fans have been showing in the Wilder vs. Fury fight that took place on December 1, Joshua has been the forgotten man that no talks about anymore. Hearn needs to do something to get the boxing public talking about Joshua once again. What better way to get the fans talking then to tell the media that Fury texted him wanting to setup a fight against Joshua. It’s pretty clever of Hearn. More than anything, Hearn needs to start promoting Joshua by talking up fights between him and guys that the boxing public wants to see him fight against. You hate to dismiss Whyte as a poor opponent for Joshua, but the fact of the matter is he’s a retread opponent. Joshua already knocked Whyte out in the 7th round in 2015. Why fight Whyte again? The best way for Hearn to bring Joshua back as a guy that the boxing fans around the world want to talk about is to match him against the likes of Fury or Wilder, not Whyte. But unfortunately, Hearn is only offering Wilder flat fees and small percentage cuts that he’ll never in a million years agree to. If Hearn chooses to use the same page out of the playbook he used on Wilder negotiations to try and setup a fight between Joshua and Fury, it’s going to be a fail.
Hearn needs to show Fury the money
If Hearn is serious about Fury contacting him to put together a fight against Joshua, he’ll give a 50-50 deal. Fury has already said that he wants a 60-40 percentage split in his favor for the Joshua fight.
Hearn is going to need a big name to help Joshua fill Wembley Stadium in April 13. The fans are expecting that Joshua’s opponent is going to be Dillian Whyte. He’s not popular enough to bring in the huge crowds that Eddie needs to fill the 90,000 seat Wembley stadium.
Assuming that Fury does sign for a fight against Joshua on April 13, it would show that Tyson didn’t have the self-confidence that he could win the rematch with Deontay. If Fury really believes he has the talent to defeat Wilder, then he would take that fight in a second and prove that he could beat him a second time. So instead of Fury going into the Joshua fight off the back of a 12 round split draw, he could go into the with a victory instead.