Anthony Joshua has walked away from the proposed all-British title fight with Tyson Fury after growing tired of the WBC champions' antics, promoter Eddie Hearn has suggested.
Fury has repeatedly set new deadlines for Joshua's team to sign contracts and twice last week declared the fight off in social media posts littered with insults towards his rival.
John Fury, father of Tyson, came out on Tuesday to blame Hearn for the latest collapse of negotiations, insisting: "Yes, Eddie, you’ve stopped the biggest fight in British history happening, through no fault of our own ... It’s not me [who has] put the block on what the fans wanted. You did all of this on your own doing, mate."
Hearn has maintained that a broad agreement had been reached - including a 60-40 purse split in favour of Fury - but it now appears boths sides have walked away and Joshua is looking at other options.
"There hasn't been any communication since last Thursday," Hearn told IFTV. "[Fury] came out and told [Joshua] that the fight was 100 per cent off and there was no way he was getting [the fight]."
Heard continued: "We are willing to speak about [getting an agreement] ... Can it get made? Yes, 100%. We are willing to talk about it at any time. But we were told categorically by Mr. Fury that the fight was dead and there was no way he was taking the fight. So, from AJ's point of view, he doesn't want to engage with him.
"He accepted it was [over] with last Monday when Fury came out publicly and abused him and said the fight was off. Then, when he did it again on Thursday ... how many times do you have to say it until the other bloke says 'you know what, leave it'. And then [Fury’s camp] say we never came crawling back, no we didn't."
Heard said: "We will look at dates and venues [for other fights. December 17 is a date we like, the venue option isn't great. Wembley Arena is a great venue but just in terms of size, it holds around 11,000 I think. But AJ wants to get out and he's been training hard."
