By Jeff Aronow: Anthony Joshua has started training camp, and the date and venue for his mega-fight against Tyson Fury will be wrapped up and confirmed by next week for July says, Eddie Hearn.
It’s a good sign that IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs) has officially started training camp for the fight. He wouldn’t be doing that if he didn’t have full confidence the fight is taking place in July.
This huge fight $275+ million fight Joshua-Fury fight is finally on the verge of being made official after next week if everything goes as planned Matchroom Boxing.
Hearn isn’t saying which countries he’s visited to speak to people about staging the Joshua vs. Fury fight, but he’s confident that it will be done in short order.
Unfortunately for U.S and UK boxing fans, the Middle East is in the lead in landing the fight, although the U.S and the Far East are remaining in the running.
Hearn hasn’t come out and said definitely that the Joshua vs. Fury fight WON’T be taking place a Wembley, but it’s difficult to see it taking place in the location due to the money and the need for a full crowd of 100,000. It won’t work Wembly is at 50% crowd capacity in July.
Joshua has started training camp
“We’re closing in on securing the venue, and there will be an announcement in due course,” said Hearn to the Daily Mail on the Joshua vs. Fury site location.
“We’re at the stage where it’s probably best not to say much more than that.’
“We always had a time-frame in place in the agreement that everybody signed. That can be extended, but it’s not the intention to extend it,” said Hearn.
Of course, fans will remain skeptical of anything Hearn says at this point regarding the Joshua vs. Tyson Fury because he’s been all over the place for months with his updates.
Until Fury’s promoters announce the fight at Top Rank, the boxing public will remain skeptical about what Hearn says.
Just recently, Hearn talked of a mysterious billionaire from the Far East recently to stage the fight in his country. That was weeks ago, and we’ve not heard anything from Hearn since about this person.
Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) and his dad John Fury want to get this fight done already because he needs to fight twice in 2021. The Gypsy King only fought once in 2020, and he doesn’t want a repeat this year.
“AJ has started his training camp, and Fury has been training very hard,” said Hearn.
“They all want the fight. They will be presented with a few proposals on where to do the fight, and everyone has to agree on where to do it. There is no other fight out there that comes close for either guy. July is the date,” said Hearn.