Promoter Bob Arum has accused Eddie Hearn of “slow-playing” negotiations surrounding Tyson Fury’s bout against Anthony Joshua.
The compatriots were in talks to fight on December 3 but discussions stalled and no contracts have been signed. Arum says Hearn did not want to fight from “the get go” and therefore slowed talks so no contracts would be agreed.
‘The first issue was well there’s different [TV] networks involved,” Arum told Sky Sports. “So, there was a meeting held and, lo and behold, all the networks signed off and they found a way to do it.
“Now, Mr Hearn got involved and he didn’t want the fight to happen from the get-go, so he slow-played it. I’ve been in this business almost 60 years so I can tell when somebody doesn’t want something to happen and then slow-plays a negotiation. Here, once the percentages were decided, there were no real issues. You could sit in a room for three hours and get everything finalised, but Hearn refused to do it.
“I think that was terrible on his part because I know Frank Warren and George, partners from Queensberry, were prepared to meet personally with Eddie and get everything worked out, I mean there were no issues, for a fight not to happen where there are no issues because one promoter doesn’t want it to happen and is in a stalling position is to my mind reprehensible.”
The fight would have given Joshua another attempt to be a heavyweight title holder once again after he failed to regain his belts in his rematch against Oleksandr Usyk.
The bout would have also seen Fury come out of retirement and Arum is not the only person accusing Hearn of blowing up the fight.
Fury’s father John took to social media and said: “This is a video to Eddie Hearn. Mr Brains of Britain. Let me explain it to you, my friend, how you cost your man over £100m,’ Fury Sr. said in a video on social media.
“£15m step-aside money. Free money. Then Tyson would’ve gone and done what AJ couldn’t do. He’s gone and beat Usyk and brought all the belts back to the UK.
“In the meantime, AJ could’ve had a couple of easy victories – another £30m – and then he could’ve challenged Tyson for the belt. Well, who knows what numbers what would’ve done.”
