By Brian Webber: Promoter Eddie Hearn says Anthony Joshua will step in and fight Tyson Fury in the summer if his undisputed clash with Oleksandr Usyk fails to happen on April 29th.
Hearn says Fury will make much more money fighting Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs) in a mega-bout than he will face IBF, WBA & WBO heavyweight champion Usyk next.
Like many, Hearn has doubts that the Fury-Usyk fight will take place because Fury is asking for a TON of money, and the Saudis don’t want to pay his asking price.
At the same time, Fury feels he’s a much bigger name than Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs), and he doesn’t view him as worthy of a 50-50 split.
As a result, with the money being far less if the fight is staged in the UK, it’s not going to be a great deal for Usyk because he’s already made his deal with the Saudis, and he knows what he can make if the fight is staged there. The problem is Fury.
He wants more than the Saudis are willing to pay, so unless he comes down to earth in his asking price, he’ll not only make less money fighting in the UK, but he’ll likely wind up with no Usyk fight.
Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Fury is his own worst enemy at this point in his career. He sees himself as a huge star, and he’s wrecking negotiations for all his biggest potential fights. Greed is hurting Fury’s chances to make legacy-building fights.
Joshua will fight Fury if no Usyk
“He [Tyson Fury] has been very quiet. Don’t forget, he said Anthony Joshua had 24/48 hours to sign,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV. “And the reason Fury couldn’t fight AJ on Dec 17th was that he was fighting Usyk in February, so it had to be Dec 3rd.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen with this Usyk thing. He may fight Fury next. We’d be open for that fight.
“If Usyk doesn’t fight Fury, AJ will fight Fury next in the summer if he gets through Franklin. How about that? Stick that in your pipe and smoke it. He will. I have no idea if Fury-Usyk is going to happen.
“I can give you my opinion. I’m telling you if that fight doesn’t happen, we will take the Fury fight. I’m telling you, he [Joshua] will take that fight. He’ll take the Wilder fight, he’ll take them all. That’s something I’ve been thinking about recently. It might be a little tinkle to George Warren, but we’ll see.
“Don’t be surprised to see that fight in the summer if the other one doesn’t happen. That’s much bigger than the Usyk fight, much bigger.
My opinion is this. Tyson Fury has asked for a fortune for the fight,” said Hearn when asked if the Fury-Usyk fight will take place, and rightfully so. The Middle East has said, ‘No, we’re not paying that.’ If he’s asked for that much money, there is no way you can do the fight at Wembley without taking a quarter of what you thought you’d get in the Middle East.
“I don’t know how much Fury fancies the fight. He’s a great fighter, one of the pound-for-pound fighters. He can make more money fighting AJ, Ngannou, and the other problem is, in his opinion, he has much more value in the fight than Oleksandr Usyk,” said Hearn.
Obstacle to Fury-Usyk getting made
“When you talk about belts when you talk about undisputed fights, it’s a 50-50 split, but if I’m Tyson Fury, predicting what he’s going to say, ‘He ain’t getting the same as me. I’m Tyson Fury. I’m a mega. He ain’t a mega. Without me, who is Oleksandr Usyk going to fight?’ And that is a very valid point because, without Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk is in a really position,” said Hearn.
“I know what I paid Oleksandr Usyk for the second fight, and it was huge compared to the first fight. If Usyk doesn’t fight Tyson Fury, he’ll have to make a voluntary defense close to probably a tenth of what he would make in the Tyson Fury fight.
“Tyson Fury is a good manipulator, and he’ll be looking at this, ‘Middleweight, you really need me.’ Usyk is a man of principle. He’s not going to be bullied at the negotiation table. He’s not going to be taken advantage of.
“He’s not going to be manipulated. He would walk away out of honor and out of principle, and that is the truth of what I see is happening right now. I can’t see how the fight takes place in England unless both are prepared to take much more than they hope they would get for this fight, and maybe they do
“It could still be the biggest fight for Fury outside of AJ and Ngannou. But like I’m saying, if that fight doesn’t happen, we’ll jump in with AJ fighting Fury, and he’ll make much more money than what he’d get fighting Usyk, and he might think it’s an easier fight.
“New broadcaster with DAZN, a new trainer. There’s been a lot of changes in the career of Anthony Joshua. I think this is a good fight,” Hearn about Joshua vs. Jermaine Franklin.
“You’re always going to get criticism. ‘He [Joshua] should have an easy fight coming off two defeats against the pound-for-pound #1.’ This isn’t an easy fight. I think it’s a good fight for him to showcase what he’s learning under Derrick James, who is a fantastic trainer. I was really impressed with him.
“I’m excited. There are people who don’t know. That’s the reality. We don’t know where he’s at,” said Hearn about Joshua. “I still believe he’s physically still in his prime. Mentally he sounds great. From a boxing sense, he looks unbelievable, but on April 1st, we’ll see.
Joshua can make a statement
“If he can go out and do a job on Jermaine Franklin, it’ll be a good statement,” said Hearn. “If he struggles and wins, people will obviously criticize. If he knocks him out early, people will also criticize, but it’ll be very impressive if he goes out and does a job on Jermaine Franklin. He’s hungry.
“I just feel this part of his life, and this part of his career, should be about him. He’s given so much of his time to British boxing. Now is the time to be selfish, and if it means doing less and not giving your time as much if it means not doing as much media and doing less commercial stuff, then do it because you get one last roll of the dice here, really. This is it.
“This is the final phase of his career. Whether that’s five fights, eight fights, or ten fights, I have no idea. It’s a very important fight for him on April 1st.
“I don’t buy it, and I’m not covering his tracks,” said Hearn about Joshua’s comment during the kick-off press conference about his focus being money at this stage of his career. “Money is important, of course, it’s important for him to make as much money as possible.
“He’s fighting people for a living. He is a prizefighter. I know what motivates Anthony Joshua. I’ve been with him since his professional debut. We don’t always have to agree on stuff, but I’ll tell you my opinion.
“He wants legacy. He wants to beat the best in the sport. Yeah, he wants to make money, of course, but he wants to regain his world heavyweight championship. Whether he tells you that or not, that’s my opinion. This is a young man still that’s a great competitor.
“Like Canelo Alvarez, that has achieved so much and yet still wants to go through the process of this sport, it has to be deeper than money, and it is because he doesn’t need the money, nor does Canelo Alvarez.
“They do it because they love the sport, they love to compete, and they love to fight, and he’s the same. It would be a pretty s**t sport if every time a hard fight came out, you looked for a way to avoid it and it happens a lot.
“Listen, if AJ and his team had come to me and no one liked the Usyk fight. Rob McCracken knew how good Usyk was. Everyone had seen it, but it’s the challenge and AJ has never been afraid of a challenge.
“Just as much Leigh Wood should get credit this week. AJ should get a load of credit for fighting Usyk twice. He can fight anybody in the world and make a fortune. If he had come to me and said, ‘I’m not mad about the style of Usyk. I don’t think it suits me. He’s a southpaw and moves a lot. I think we should vacate the belt.’
“I’d go, ‘Are you sure?’ And he’d go,’Yeah.’ I’d go, ‘That’s a pretty smart move, really.’ But I would never even insult him by going to him and saying that because he would look at me and think? ‘What, you don’t think I can beat Usyk?’
“Again, the credit that he never got is for those kinds of reasons. He has never ever looked for a way out. Even when we boxed Povetkin, people go, ‘Oh Povetkin.’ When he fought Povetkin, he was a f***king handful still. It was a mandatory.
“No one at that time wanted to fight Povetkin. Trust me, and he was the mandatory. I said, ‘Do you want to fight Povetkin?’ ‘Yeah, no problem.’ He [Joshua] was still a novice. When you look back at mistakes. Maybe it was a mistake fighting Andy Ruiz.
“People will say, ‘He should have beat Andy Ruiz.’ Yeah, he should have beaten Andy Ruiz, but we had three or four weeks. The Jarrell Miller fight had fallen through. Now, we have a completely different style, and we can’t get sparring, but that’s it.
“‘Do you want to fight?’ ‘Yeah, I want to fight this guy?’ ‘Andy Ruiz, no problem.’ If you said that he has to fight Usyk again, he’d fight him again. Even like now, ‘Otto Wallin,’ ‘No, problem.’ Demsey McKean, ‘no problem.’ Filip Hrgovic, ‘No problem.’
“He’s never ever ducked a challenge. No easy fights, no gimmes, and this ain’t a gimme either. You know how passionate I am about AJ. I’ve got his back every day of the week. I’ve got his back, not just because he’s been part of the business, and he’s made me loads of money.
“I’ve got his back because I rate him; I like him a lot. I respect him, and I know all the conversations that have been had, whether it’s Wilder, whether it’s Fury, whether it’s Usyk. All these people, and the answer has been yes every single time, and it’ll continue to be yes.
“When people talk about, ‘He’ll never fight Wilder.’ He’ll fight Wilder, trust me,” said Hearn