By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn says there are some people that still want the Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk undisputed fight to happen next, but he doesn’t see that happening.
Interestingly, Hearn seems cool to the idea of Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte stepping aside so that Fury and Usyk could square off for the undisputed heavyweight match.
It’s possible that Hearn is stuck on the belief that Joshua will absolutely defeat Usyk in the rematch just as he did against Andy Ruiz Jr. in December 2019.
Eddie Hearn thinks AJ will avenge his loss
Hearn seems convinced that Joshua will avenge his defeat, and he’ll move on as if nothing ever happened last September. That’s the dream scenario that Hearn obviously is wishing for.
With Hearn, his mindset seems to be stuck in the past, thinking that things are still going swimmingly with Joshua. Up until 2019. Joshua was viewed as an invincible robot, blasting through his hapless opposition.
Unfortunately, Andy Ruiz Jr. ruined the dream situation for Hearn by knocking Joshua out in seven rounds, and he hasn’t looked the same since.
The reality is that Joshua is heading towards a second straight loss, but this time it’ll likely be far worse with him getting knocked out by Usyk.
Hearn could be crying crocodile tears if things blow up in his face with Usyk sending Joshua down to an even WORSE defeat than last time. It’s fair to say there will be a lot of second-guessing going on in the aftermath of Joshua losing again to Usyk, and you got to wonder who will take the blame this time?
Joshua not thinking clearly right now
Will it be Hearn taking the blame for him easily rolling over on Joshua rather than being assertive and the parental figure to the popular mega-millionaire?
When you got a fighter like AJ, who isn’t thinking clearly, you got to snap him out of it and make him realize that they’re heading down the wrong path in facing a fighter that he has virtually no shot at beating.
Joshua getting humiliated again won’t just hurt his own career. It’s going to mess things up for Hearn and his Matchroom Boxing stable, which is why it’s incredulous that he’s not going all out to get Joshua to step aside.
Forget about step aside, Joshua should be the one paying Fury to take the Usyk fight because he’ll be doing him a solid by saving his sinking career by facing the talented Ukrainian.
Unfortunately, for Hearn and Joshua, it’s an entirely different situation with Usyk as the guy AJ needs to defeat instead of the 283-lb out-of-shape Ruiz.
Given the poor condition Ruiz was in for the rematch, how could Joshua not win the fight? As bad as Ruiz looked that night, Hearn could have trotted out Alen Babic and he would have done a job on the blubbery Andy Jr. that night.
According to Hearn, the most likely scenario we’re going to see next is Anthony Joshua facing Usyk to try and win back his three heavyweight titles in April, and Fury defending his WBC strap against mandatory Dillian Whyte.
Hearn isn’t ruling out the possibility of Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) facing IBF/WBA/WBO champion Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) for the undisputed championship next, but he sounds skeptical about whether that will happen.
Even though it’s a move that would potentially save Joshua’s career, it doesn’t seem to register with Hearn that it’s wiser if a step aside deal is put together for Fury to face Usyk and AJ & Whyte to step aside.
Charles Brun can only imagine the speech Hearn will be giving to the media after Joshua loses to Usyk again. It’s predictable that Hearn will be saying, ‘Why didn’t I force Joshua to take the step aside? Oh boy, I blew it.’
Hearn doubts Usyk vs. Fury fight happens
“Everybody knows there’s a desire with some people to try and make the Fury vs. Usyk fight,” said Hearn to iFL TV. “There would be a lot of things that would need to take place for the fight to get the go-ahead, and that’s NOT the delay to the purse bid.
“We’re not looking to see if Fury-Whyte happens first to put a date together for Joshua against Usyk, no. I’m saying there’s still a desire from some people to try and get that fight [Fury vs. Usyk] together.
“The favorite right now is Fury against Whyte and AJ against Usyk,” said Hearn. “Anything can happen. In these closing periods of time leading up to D-day, crunch period, or purse bid or whatever you want to call it, this is where business happens.
“So, expect the unexpected but my gut feeling is you’ll see those [Fury vs. Whyte and Joshua vs. Usyk] two fights. You’ll never know what’s going to happen over the next couple of days.
“The March 26th date is the date that came from Frank Warren and Bob Arum,” said Hearn. “Whatever happens, Fury is fighting on that date.
“I don’t feel that’s possible, really in any of those scenarios unless the purse bid goes ahead on Friday and they win it and they do the [Fury vs. Whyte] fight on March 26th. If we win the purse bid, we wouldn’t do the fight on March 26th.
“I feel it’s going to be a sizable fight, and it could even be an international fight, and it’s not enough time, in all honesty, to get that together,” said Hearn on the Fury vs. Whyte match.