By Charles Brun: Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn reacted in confusion and surprise at Tyson Fury’s laughing video post on Friday. Hearn says Fury “bottled it” by saying he didn’t want to fight IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk next.
According to Hearn, Fury insisted on an interim fight BEFORE fighting Usyk for his titles, and they couldn’t allow that.
With Fury having fought only three months ago on October 9th against Deontay Wilder, Hearn didn’t understand his need for an interim fight before facing Usyk.
It would be one thing if Fury were coming off a long layoff and needed a tune-up to get ready to challenge the unbeaten Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs).
Still, for Fury to be asking for a warm-up just three months after his last fight against Deontay, that looks like he didn’t have the self-confidence required for him to take the unification match against Usyk.
Granted, Fury packed on a lot of fat after his win over Wilder last October, but he should be able to take that weight off before fighting in late March.
In a recent video workout of Fury, he appeared to be 30 lbs overweight, which should be a snap for him to take off to get back in the 270s for his last two fights against Deontay.
Of course, if Fury is looking to get down to the 250s for the Usyk fight, yeah, it makes sense for him to want a tune-up before facing him. Obviously, Fury WON’T be able to burn off 50 lbs of fat before late March. That’s not realistic.
Hearn says he spoke to Usyk’s promoter Alex Krassyuk and told him that Fury had ‘Bottled it.‘ In other words, Fury had lost his nerve and lacked the self-confidence or courage to face the undefeated Oleksandr for his titles.
Hearn says Fury lost out
“I don’t know what Fury is thinking. I saw his post on Instagram. ‘AJ has lost the money.’ No, he’s lost the money because he turned down the Usyk fight next. That’s the reality,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV.
“I don’t know what he’s thinking, but let’s just get on with the fights that were originally planned,” said Hearn about wanting to go ahead with the Fury vs. Dillian Whyte and Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk fights.
“So, he’s going to go on and fight Dillian Whyte. I don’t know, ‘Ha-ha,'” said Hearn in reacting to Fury’s laughing video on Twitter. “We’re easy.
“If we had the conversations about allowing Fury to fight for the undisputed title [against Usyk], we’ll have those conversations, but he decided he didn’t want to fight for the undisputed title.
“I saw his post a week ago where he said, ‘You let the Ukrainian take away all your belts. Now I’m going to have to do it.’ You’re not, are you? Because you said, you need a fight in between. Why do you need a fight in between?
“He’s entitled to do anything he wants, but I don’t know what there is to laugh about. AJ stepped up to the plate to fight Oleksander Usyk. Not, ‘I need one in between or hang on, I’ll just do a few posts on Instagram, pretending I want to fight him.’
“I spoke to [Oleksandr’s promoter] Alex Krassyuk last night. They feel Tyson Fury has bottled the [Usyk] fight against Usyk. One thing you’ll find out about Anthony Joshua, he’ll fight anyone, and he’s proven that time and time again.
Fury doesn’t want to fight Usyk
“No one wants to fight Olekandr Usyk. I don’t blame Tyson Fury, but AJ did it right off the bat. Many people would have dropped that [WBO] belt. It looks like he’s up for fighting him again, and have another go.
“It’s a hard task. Look at the long-form agreement. Tyson said, ‘No, I want an interim. I don’t want to fight Usyk. Straightaway, I want an interim.’ That was another thing that killed it [the step aside deal for Joshua].
🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/LNf6K9Kcxm
— TYSON FURY (@Tyson_Fury) January 28, 2022
“We don’t want necessarily trust a lot of people to have a fight and then fight AJ after unless it’s concrete on paper and there are penalties. But what we’re not allowing is an interim fight, then Usyk, and then another one.
“Three fights in a year. When did that happen? We were all willing to have that conversation, but not it looks like it’s irrelevant. In the end, Fury wanted to fight in March. He wanted to have a warm-up fight and then fight Usyk. In the end, when that fell through, he said, ‘I’ll fight Dillian Whyte instead.’
“I think April 29th is the date where if we win the purse bid [for Fury vs. Whyte] that we have to do the fight by. So, we have to do the fight by then.
“That’s Fury against Whyte. AJ, I think that can be a little bit later. That’ll be in May,” Hearn said for when Joshua will be fighting Usyk in their rematch.
“There are some silly businessman out there,” said Fury on Twitter on Friday in reaction to him choosing not to fight Usyk.
