Eddie Hearn has held initial talks with Tyson Fury's team over a potential December showdown with Anthony Joshua.
Fury had planned to fight Oleksandr Usyk before the end of the year but the Ukrainian will not be ready for the undisputed fight until early in 2023. Fury insists he wants to fight again in 2022, however, and called out Joshua for a Battle of Britain.
Joshua said he would be ready in December, just three months after he was outpointed by Usyk for a second time. And his promoter Hearn has revealed he held talks with Frank Warren's son last night.
"I would love to get really excited about this," he told talkSPORT. "It’s the fight that I get stopped in street for more than any fight that could be made and it’s a fight that AJ has wanted for a long time. Don’t forget, we signed for this fight last year before the arbitration forced the Deontay Wilder fight for Tyson Fury.
"It’s an interesting one, because last week he retired, then he came back to fight Usyk, then he made an offer to Derek Chisora, then he wanted half a billion, then he’d retired again, then he’s fighting Usyk in December and now he’s fighting AJ. The message is quite clear from AJ, we don’t want to get involved in a backwards and forwards, we want the fight, it’s the fight he’s wanted for a long time.
"We had plans after the Usyk defeat to come back in December and then go again in March, get active and get the rhythm going again and then try and fight for the world heavyweight title. But, I know having spoken to AJ, if that fight is there and they’re serious, which I have my doubts about, but for the good of trying to make it happen let’s believe Tyson Fury and I said to George Warren last night, get the details and the offer over to us and I’ll take it to AJ, he’s ready to go.
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"We didn’t expect this opportunity, but it’s a great opportunity to fight for the world title in the biggest fight in boxing and we will definitely look at it. For me and the cynic in boxing, this smells of, ‘Oh, we couldn’t agree the AJ deal so I’m fighting this bloke you’ve never heard of instead, but no one else was available.’
"But let’s take the cynic away and see what we get back from the Fury camp, because we’re ready to discuss it and we’re ready to make that fight for sure."
Fury initially insisted he was retired following his win over Dillian Whyte in April before opening the door to exhibition bouts with UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou and strongman Thor Bjornsson. He later claimed he wanted to fight Chisora before claiming his rival turned down £2million for a trilogy fight.
And when Usyk outpointed Joshua last month, Fury agreed to meet the Ukrainian for the undisputed title, but demanded £500m while setting a deadline of last Thursday for a deal to be done. That deadline came and went when Usyk ruled out a December date.
