By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn says Anthony Joshua may need to face Tyson Fury in July without his longtime trainer Rob McCracken working his corner. McCracken has a commitment to the GB Boxing team, who will be taking part in the Olympics in Tokyo from July to August. McCracken is the performance director of GB Boxing.
With IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs) expected to face WBC champ Fury (30-0, 21 KOs) at the tail-end of July, McCracken might not be able to work his corner on the night.
Nevertheless, Hearn says that Joshua will still go ahead with his mega-fight with Fury even if McCracken can’t take part due to him being involved with the GB team in the Olympics in Tokyo. In other words, the Joshua – Fury fight is too big for it to be sidelined by the absence of McCracken.
AJ will fight without McCracken if need be
Joshua, 31, has been around the sport for long enough for him to fight on cruise control without the need of McCracken in his corner. You can argue that Joshua is mentally strong enough to beat Fury even with no trainer in his career.
Joshua knows what he sees in Fury’s fighting style that he can take advantage of, and he’ll be able to make adjustments on the fly without needing McCracken to point out the obvious.
“It could be inappropriate, but it is the biggest fight in boxing, and the biggest moment in AJ’s career, so we have to work it out,” said Eddie Hearn to The Independent about Joshua potentially being without his longtime trainer Rob McCracken for his first fight with Fury.
“I know Rob takes his position very seriously. He loves the job and the kids so it’s not ideal, but we can’t move it a couple of weeks on either side.
“We don’t have a choice. There are too many people and things to fit around already with the fighters, trainers, countries, time zones, the Olympics,” said Hearn.
Obviously, it won’t be ideal for Joshua to fight without McCracken working his corner, but what can you do? Joshua isn’t going to walk away from the biggest fight in boxing history just because his trainer McCracken has other commitments.
Joshua will be getting a payday of $100 million+ for the Fury fight, and he’s not going to take the risk of delaying it just because McCracken can’t make it.
If Fury were to move on and be forced to fight Deontay Wilder again, he might get knocked cold, and that would wreck the plans for a Joshua-Fury fight.
The only fighter the boxing public wants to see Fury facing besides Joshua is the talented knockout artist Deontay (42-1-1, 41 KOs), and we already saw what he did to him in their first fight.
Hearn warns he’ll be unbearable
“People are saying to me, ‘How long?” said Hearn to iFL TV when talking about the timeline of when he makes the announcement for the Joshua vs. Fury fight.
“‘How long do you reckon?’ I don’t know. And I think six to ten days is a safe time. I keep telling you. It’s not like nothing is happening. You sign the contracts to fight.
“We had to present them last Sunday with the offers that we had. Everybody agreed on this particular offer that comes in. We moved forward, and we say to that country, ‘We’re in. Please, let’s move forward to finalize the contract.’ Done.
“That’s all moving forward. There are contracts moving backward and forwards tonight to Top Rank, to our lawyers, and to AJ. I don’t want to be too brash because everyone said I couldn’t do it and I wouldn’t do it.
“So just in case something catastrophic happens, I’m saying nothing but be warned. If this gets over the line, I may be unbearable,” said Hearn on the Joshua vs. Fury getting finalized.
“I’m just putting it out there. But anything can happen, and I’m saying nothing. I’m just going to graft my nuts off, keep my head down.
“I’m going to take every obstacle, every hurdle ahead, and I’m going to overcome everyone, and I’m going to get it made,” said Hearn.
It sounds like Hearn will be a nervous wreck once the Joshua vs. Fury clash gets made. Also, you can imagine that Hearn will be doing a bit of gloating once it’s made to revel in putting it together.
One can see Hearn going on a victory lap to brag about what he’s achieved in getting the match negotiated, and the site fee finalized.
Joshua vs. Fury still planned for summer
“No, he won’t,” said Hearn when told that Fury told Max Kellerman that he’s going to take another fight if the Joshua fight doesn’t get made for the summer.
“Yeah, by the way, if it isn’t in the summer, then AJ isn’t going to hang around forever. They’ll fight different people. Definitely in the summer,” said Hearn about when the Joshua vs. Fury fight will be taking place.
“There’s no talk of this fight happening in September, October, or November. Two fights this year, that’s it.
“I wouldn’t want to see AJ in the cage, but that’s up to AJ,” said Hearn about the idea of Joshua fighting UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.
“He’s just focused on being undisputed. He’s not really into WWE or UFC. He just wants to go down in history as a great boxer, and obviously, the pinnacle of that is becoming an undisputed champion,” said Hearn.
