By Jeff Aronow: Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn says Tyson Fury’s management has until the end of this week to solve their problem with Deontay Wilder, or AJ will move on and look at several other options he has for his next fight.
At this point, it’s obvious that Hearn has no other choice but to move on for Joshua’s next fight because the decision has already been made by Fury’s promoter Bob Arum. He’s targeting the Fury vs. Wilder III trilogy fight to happen in July.
Ideally, Hearn and Arum want Wilder to step aside so that Joshua can face Fury in a mega-fight on August 14th in Saudi Arabia.
For that to happen, Wilder will need to be paid a likely massive step aside fee, and Arum has shockingly already ruled out doing that.
In other words, Arum has given up on the August 14th Fury-Joshua fight and wants to match Fury against Wilder in a trilogy match on July 24th at the new outdoor Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Assuming that Fury’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank isn’t able to work out a step aside deal with Wilder, Hearn says Joshua could face his WBO mandatory Oleksandr Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs) next.
That’s one of Joshua’s options, but Hearn has others as well. If Hearn chooses not to fight with Usyk, Joshua will likely need to vacate his WBO belt, which won’t be a big deal. He can always fight for that belt at a later date, given his popularity.
“If Team Fury doesn’t get their act together by the end of this week, we will have no option but to look for an alternative fight,” said Hearn to Matchroom Boxing on Joshua, moving on to face Oleksandr Usyk next.
“Anthony Joshua wants to fight this summer; Oleksandr Usyk is mandatory; we have two or three other options.”
There are better options for Joshua than facing Usyk, beginning with a rematch against Dillian Whyte. Joshua vs. Whyte would be a huge clash, no matter where it’s staged.
Obviously, that would be a fight that would be preferable to take place at home in the UK, but the lack of crowds will make that impossible for the time being.
Other excellent options:
- Andy Ruiz Jr
- Joe Joyce
- Daniel Dubois
- Filip Hrgovic
- Frank Sanchez
Understandably, the Matchroom Boxing promoter Hearn is furious after learning that WBC heavyweight champion Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) lost his arbitration case with former WBC champ Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) on Monday.
Hearn had put in months of grueling work to get the Joshua vs. Fury fight deal done, only to discover that he’s wasted his time. He says Fury’s management had assured him that the arbitration case wouldn’t be a problem, and obviously, they were wrong.
“Everything that we were told from the get-go is that this arbitration issue wouldn’t be a problem, Hearn said.
“Obviously, it is a problem now and we have to think on our feet and act accordingly. But we still hope that the fight can go ahead, but really that’s completely out of our hands.
“We have a deal in place with Tyson Fury, we provided an unbelievable opportunity to him, we were told by his team,” said Hearn.
