NEWARK, New Jersey – Bob Arum doesn’t get the feeling that Eddie Hearn really wants Anthony Joshua to fight Tyson Fury next.
Representatives from Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing and Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions have discussed Fury at length defending his WBC heavyweight title against Joshua on December 3 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Warren recently revealed that if his complicated deal isn’t completed by the end of this week, he and Arum, whose company Top Rank Inc. co-promotes Fury, will move on to another opponent for their franchise fighter.
According to Arum, that’s exactly what Hearn wants to see happen.
“We have been exchanging documents with Matchroom,” Arum told BoxingScene.com on Wednesday before a press conference to promote the Shakur Stevenson-Robson Conceicao card on Friday night at the Prudential Center. “We don’t think Hearn wants to do that fight. We really don’t think he wants to do that fight. We are giving him every opportunity to make that fight. And if we can’t do it very soon, Fury will fight someone else. We have another opponent lined up.”
Arum did not identify his second choice for Fury.
Joshua has lost consecutive unanimous decisions to Oleksandr Usyk, but facing him against Fury would still amount to the biggest fight in British boxing history from a financial standpoint. However, Arum suspects that Joshua’s longtime promoter understands how dangerous it would be to put the 6-foot-6, 245-pound Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs) in the ring with the 6-foot-9, 265-pounder. Pound Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs).
“I think Hearn knows, as most boxing people know, that all things being equal, Fury will knock Joshua out,” Arum said. “That Joshua is very suspicious now and very tentative. And he’s still a draw card, so why would you want to cash in your draw card? So I don’t think it will. I think he’s just screwing with the Warrens. We talk to the Warrens every day because we’re partners. [on Fury]but we are letting them carry the ball.”
Arum, 90, informed BoxingScene.com late last month that he intended to make what would be an all-out unification fight between Usyk and Fury next. Ukraine’s Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) is not the opponent Arum expects Fury to face if these Fury-Joshua negotiations don’t lead to Queensberry and Matchroom making a deal.
His second choice, whoever he is, won’t be as marketable as Joshua, but Arum doesn’t think it’s wise to wait for event coordinators in Saudi Arabia or another Middle Eastern country to fund him before finalizing Fury-Joshua. After drawing a crowd of approximately 94,000 to London’s Wembley Stadium for his sixth-round knockout of Dillian Whyte on April 23, Arum and Warren want Fury’s next fight somewhere in the UK.
“Whoever Fury fights will sell an arena in England,” Fury said. “And, you know, even talking to Fury himself, because he’s looking at the long picture, he wants to expose himself. It is a big attraction in the United States. He is a huge attraction in the UK. And he wants to play with it.
“He is not going to wait for crazy money from Saudi Arabia. I mean, that’s not good for boxing fans. You know, occasionally if you fight in Saudi Arabia or Abu Dhabi or Qatar, that’s fine. But you don’t sit back and wait for them to fight. That’s not good. That’s not good for the sport.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
