By Barry Holbrook: Promoter Frank Warren notes that Anthony Joshua’s failure to recapture his IBF, WBA & WBO heavyweight titles from champion Oleksandr Usyk means Eddie Hearn is now out of the picture for world championship level fights in the division.
Hearn isn’t permanently out of the heavyweight world title picture. To be sure, once the four belts are vacated, Hearn can swiftly move Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs) to scoop up one of the dropped belts against a beatable contender.
Despite Joshua’s recent run of bad luck against Usyk in back-to-back defeats, he’s still more than capable of beating contenders like Joseph Parker, Andy Ruiz Jr, Joe Joyce, and Filip Hrgovic to pick up one of the straps.
Warren is in the driver’s seat for the undisputed heavyweight clash between WBC champion Tyson Fury and IBF/WBA/WBO champ Oleksandr Usyk.
Whether that fight can be successfully negotiated depends greatly on Fury’s purse demands. If Fury requests more money than the contest against Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) is capable of generating, then the fight won’t happen.
Obviously, Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs) will need to come down to earth and give up on his pipe dream of $500 million for his next fight because that’s not going to happen.
“Whatever happens, after Joshua’s defeat last weekend, Hearn is now out of the heavyweight title picture,” said Frank Warren to the Daily Star.
“Joshua failed to regain the WBA, IBF, and WBO titles last weekend when he was outpointed again by Usyk.
“Eddie Hearn has come out this week and said that Oleksandr Usyk would beat Tyson Fury.
He said that Deontay Wilder would beat Tyson on three occasions.
He said that Dillian Whyte would beat Tyson and we wouldn’t do any business for that fight, yet it broke the Wembley box-office record, and our man won by knockout. He said that Anthony Joshua would knock out Usyk twice,” said Warren.
It’s quite apparent that Hearn isn’t Nostradamus with his ability to predict outcomes, but that doesn’t mean that Joshua won’t capture another world title. If he sticks around long enough, Joshua will grab a title real soon.
Both Fury & Usyk are likely to retire after their next fights, so that will put Joshua in a position to snatch one of the vacated belts.
