The proposed heavyweight bout between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua has been thrown into fresh doubt following recent comments from Fury and his supporter Dana White.
It was confirmed on Friday that an agreement had finally been reached for two of Britain’s biggest war-time fighters to meet in Cardiff on 11 December.
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However, almost immediately after the season was over, he ran into long-anticipated obstacles when Joshua’s supporter, Eddie Hearn, inquired about the American promoter’s involvement. The UFC and Zuffa Boxing were officially named as the leader of the event to co-promote the event alongside the Ring, an organization dominated by Arab powerhouse Turki Alalshikh.
Speaking on his YouTube channel on Saturday, Fury stated that Hearn and Joshua were looking to retire, estimating the likelihood of the fight happening at just one percent.
Zuffa Boxing co-founder and UFC chief executive Dana White (Brian Lawless/PA) (PA Wire)
He said, “If you have a guy who wants to fight, and you have a guy who doesn’t want to fight, then how are you going to fight?”
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White remained defiant when interviewed by Sky Sports after Johnny Fisher’s triumph at the Copper Box on Saturday.
“In battle,” he said. If Eddie Hearn really cared about this fight, it would have happened a long time ago, number one. You count two, you spent the money yourself.
“Guido, who is supposed to be helping the fight, has been hurting the fight the whole time. We will all know more in the next three or four days.”
White’s comments came after Hearn claimed earlier this week that Joshua’s camp had not agreed to Furi being the A-side for the fight.
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Fury’s name was first listed on the poster when the fight was announced by Netflix on Thursday.
Anthony Joshua (right) Eddie Hearn with his promoter AJ before his last fight (Getty)
Speaking to iFL TV on the same day, promoter Joshua Hearn said: “There’s still a lot of stuff to fight for. It’s the preferences of who gets it.
“Obviously Fury told us AJ. No problem, we couldn’t care less. No, no, that never stopped.
“We’re supposed to do a press conference next week; I’m not sure if that’s going to happen or not to be honest with you because we’re still ironing out a few things.”
Fury and Joshua are both scheduled to attend a press conference on Wednesday in London.