By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn denies that this week’s meeting between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury on the street in Marbella, Spain, was a planned out meeting to drum up interest for their two-fights in 2021. Hearn is surprised that boxing fans think it was a setup deal.
According to Hearn, Joshua told him that he was walking down the street in Marbella when Fury drove up. It would be more believable when Hearn says if he had nothing to gain from the boxing public and media, believing it was just a coincidence that Fury and AJ bumped up into each in a foreign country.
Fans think it was a setup
I’m not sure why it’s so hard for Hearn to grasp why the fans think Fury and Joshua set this thing up. But the way that Hearn denies it, he’s got Charles Brun wondering if he’s the master planner behind this chance meeting.
Hearn denies Joshua and Fury planned their meeting
“It was amazing, people think it was a setup,” said Eddie Hearn via Talkboxing in denying that Joshua and Fury’s chance meeting in Marbella was a planned deal.
“AJ said he was walking down the road and Fury drove up and opened the window and was like, ‘Alright?’
“I think he said to AJ, ‘Make sure you beat Kubrat Pulev.’ And AJ said, ‘Make sure you beat Deontay Wilder.’
“And they both said, ‘I will, and I’ll see you next year,'” said Hearn.
Eddie’s start just doesn’t sound believable, and it’s too bad he’s the one that came forward to confirm that AJ and Fury just bumped into each other. If its someone that didn’t have anything to do with the two heavyweights, then you could maybe swallow the stuff if you were an impressionable lad.
With Hearn being the one that opened up his trap to try and convince boxing fans that it was a chance meeting, I now suspect that was a setup from the very get-go.
There’s nothing wrong with AJ and Fury staging these meetings and whatnot, but do they need to be so obvious about it?
Next time when Joshua and Fury bump into each other somewhere, it needs to be a place where it makes sense for them to meet up accidentally.
Joshua said this on his Instagram along with his photo of him and Fury in Marbella: “Sweeeeeeeeeeeet Caroline!! Ohhhh ohhh ohhhhh.”
Fury and Joshua have two fights to win
Whether it was a setup or not, Joshua and Fury still need to win their next two fights before they can meet up in 2021. Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) is facing former WBC champion Deontay Wilder in December. If Tyson wins that fight, he’ll face WBC mandatory Dillian Whyte in February 2021.
For his part, AJ takes on his IBF mandatory Kubrat Pulev in November. Assuming Joshua beats the 39-year-old Pulev, he’ll then face his WBO mandatory Oleksandr Usyk in early 2021.
One way for Joshua and Fury to avoid losing before they meet up is for them to toss their IBF, WBC, and WBO titles in the bin. That takes care of everything, right? Hearn made an excellent speech last week about how he wants to take over boxing and make the governing bodies obsolete.
Fury has a better chance of winning his two fights to get to the AJ fight next year than Joshua does. Joshua has two risky battles against Pulev and Usyk, and there’s too much that can go wrong for him against those guys.
We already saw Joshua get beaten by Andy Ruiz Jr last year. He probably would have lost the rematch last December if Andy had the sense to come into the match in shape. Ruiz’s decision not to train hard probably saved Joshua.
Should AJ and Fury vacate their titles?
One way for Hearn to do that is to start right now in having his fighters choose another title to focus on that has nothing to do with the IBF, WBA, WBC, and WBO straps.
If Joshua and Fury agree among themselves that they’ll only fight for the well-respected Ring Magainze heavyweight strap and the invisible lineal title, then they won’t need to bother with Wilder, Pulev, Whyte, and Usyk.
Joshua can face Fury straightaway, and bring in loads of green stuff. That move makes all the sense in the world because thee’s too many hooks that Joshua and Fury need to jump through before their first of two fights in 2021.
It’s a lot better for them to do that than it would be for them to risk their vast fights by facing fighters that bring nothing to the table in Wilder, Whyte, Pulev, and Usyk. The boxing public has already seen Wilder and Fury fight twice. They don’t need a third match between them.