By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn is adamant about his desire not to see the WBC elevate Tyson Fury to their ‘Franchise Champion’ because he wants him to face his mandatory Dillian Whyte.
It looks to some like Hearn doesn’t wish to see Fury face Anthony Joshua because of what he could do to him. There’s too much to lose for Hearn if Fury gets a chance to work his magic against AJ as he did with Deontay Wilder.
Joshua looked bad in both of his fights against Andy Ruiz Jr, and he’s starting to look increasingly vulnerable.
It appears that Hearn’s ultimate goal is to have Fury beaten by Whyte, which would set up an in house Matchroom promoted card between Anthony Joshua and Dillian. Hearn would have full control of the promotion of a Joshua vs. Whyte unification match.
Hearn says Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) should take care of his mandatory obligation against Whyte (27-1, 18 KOs) in early 2021. Even if Hearn isn’t hoping that Whyte picks off Fury, it helps his promotional company by having The Gypsy King fight an additional time against one of his fighters.
How it helps Hearn for Fury to face Whyte in 2021
- Wears Fury down physically, making him a more natural fight for Joshua later in the year
- A loss for Fury against Whyte removes a massive threat to Joshua, which will keep him running on all eight-cylinders as a money-making machine. If Fury defeats and then later Joshua, that might hurt the cash flow that AJ brings in
- Whyte facing Fury brings in additional revenue to Matchroom next year.
- If Whyte beats Fury, it works in Hearn’s favor.
- Hearn can stop Whyte from complaining nonstop about him not getting a title shot. Whyte has been for his title shot since 2019 at the WBC belt, and Hearn can finally stop hearing him complain once he gets a crack at Fury.
So instead of Matchroom making big money from two fights between Joshua and Fury in 2021, they’ll make more money if Fury-Whyte takes place next year. That would be three fights between Matchroom fighters and Fury in 2021 instead of just two.
At the same time, Hearn is talking about potentially setting up a deal to have Anthony Joshua’s WBO mandatory Oleksandr Usyk step aside if the World Boxing Organization allows it.
Eddie: Fury should take care of his mandatory Whyte
“We don’t want the WBC to make Fury ‘franchise’ champion,” said Hearn to Boxing Social. “Let him take care of his mandatory just like Joshua’s taking care of his.
We don’t want to be elevated from ‘interim’ champ. He wants to fight the champion, he wants to fight Fury.”
Hearn SHOULD want Fury to be made the WBC Franchise champion if his goal is to ensure the Joshua-Fury fight takes place in the summer of 2021. The fact that Hearn is now saying that he doesn’t want Fury to be made the Franchise champion, it suggests that he’s got an ulterior motive for wanting the Fury-Whyte contest to take place.
The only thing I can think of is Hearn is hoping that Whyte wears Fury down enough to where Joshua can beat him later. If Fury is worn out from a rough fight with Whyte, it plays in Joshua and Hearn’s favor. If you’re Hearn, you don’t want a fresh Fury fighting Joshua next year because there’s too much of a chance that he takes him to school, and embarrasses him in a bad way.
It’s strange how Hearn has suddenly reversed course with his desire to make the Joshua vs. Fury fight. Just last week, Hearn was champing at the bit in talking up a fight between Joshua and Fury for the undisputed heavyweight championship. Now all of a sudden, Hearn is standing on his soapbox, saying that Fury must fight Whyte. It looks like Hearn doesn’t want Fury to wreck things for him by beating Joshua and grinding his money-making ability to a halt.
Hearn can’t let Fury beat Joshua
The last thing Hearn needs is for Fury to humiliate Joshua in the same way he did with Deontay Wilder last February. It’s potentially harmful to Hearn because Joshua’s money-making ability for Matchroom could take a nosedive to depths that they haven’t seen before.
It wouldn’t be a big deal if Hearn had another highly popular heavyweight in his stable that was waiting in the wings to step in and become the next colossal money-maker for Matchroom to replace the beaten Joshua, but he doesn’t have anyone. The other heavyweights that Hearn has in his stable are guys Michael Hunter, Filip Hrgovic, Dereck Chisora, and Whyte. Those fighters aren’t going to be able to bring in the same green that Joshua routinely hauled in.
It makes so much sense for Hearn to be hoping that the World Boxing Council doesn’t make Fury their Franchise champion because that would mess things up for him.
One other potential negative with the WBC making Fury their Franchise champion is they would then make Whyte their email champ, which is a secondary type of champion. A lot of boxing fans wouldn’t view Whyte as a real belt-holder. He would be considered in the same way as WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney is with him being seen as an email champ.
The WBC elevated Haney to their 135-lb belt-holder last year after they made Vasily Lomacheko Franchise champ. As a result, a lot of fans now see Haney as not a secondary champ, and some still see him as the WBC interim champion.
Usyk a looming problem for AJ
One positive that could come out of Fury being made Franchise champion is it could get Oleksandr Usyk out of Joshua’s hair potentially. If the WBC elevates Whyte to the WBC email champion, then his #1 contender would be Usyk. As such, the WBC could order Whyte to defend against Usyk, which would help Joshua greatly.
It’s pretty clear from listening to Hearn in the Boxing Social interview that he doesn’t want Joshua to defend against Usyk, and it’s easy to see why. If the WBO forces Joshua to take the fight with Usyk in early 2021, he could lose to the Ukrainian fighter.
Once that happens, you can kiss goodbye a fight between Joshua and Fury or whoever. Besides that, Joshua-Usyk isn’t a big fight. Usyk doesn’t have a fan base to speak of, and the British boxing public isn’t going to get worked up seeing AJ defend against him.
