Hearn on Fury-Joshua Negotiations: There is Still A lot To Be Done

Eddie Hearn, promoter of Anthony Joshua, is not responding to pressure from WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.

On Saturday night, Fury was ringside in Manchester, telling local reporters that Joshua had until Monday to sign the fight deal.

After weeks of discussions, Fury’s team sent Joshua and his handlers a contract on Friday.

If an agreement is reached, the fight would land in December.

“I’m sick of setting deadlines. They either want this fight or they don’t,” Fury said.

Hearn indicates that there are still many unresolved issues between the two sides, and those issues will not be resolved on Monday.

He believes that Fury is being difficult to hide his desire to fight Manuel Charr.

Another big problem is the network situation. Fury has exclusive deals with ESPN (in the US) and BT Sport (in the UK), while Joshua is a global exclusive to the streaming service DAZN.

“The talks have been decent and they are moving in the right direction, but there is a long way to go,” Hearn told Seconds Out.

“Fury wants to fight Manuel Charr, it’s pretty obvious, and the public is not the brightest if they really think otherwise. I think there is no way this contract will be signed on Monday because there is still so much to do. This fight takes time. We wait 10 days to get the contract… suddenly he wants it signed in 24 hours, no chance.

“Once again, Tyson Fury has made a statement: ‘I’m retired, I’m this, I’m giving my bag to the homeless, I’m leaving this fight on Monday.’ Guess what? The fight will not be signed on Monday. So if you want to walk away from that, while we’re all trying to do that, including your promotion team, walk away.”

Joshua, a former two-time champion, is looking to bounce back after suffering back-to-back decision losses to unified champion Oleksandr Usyk.