‘He wanted to kill’ – Tyson Fury’s promoter Bob Arum accuses Eddie Hearn of ‘sabotaging’ Anthony Joshua fight talks
TYSON FURY's promoter, Bob Arum, has accused Eddie Hearn of sabotaging a WBC heavyweight title fight with Anthony Joshua.
A fight between the two Brits was the talk of the town last month with the pair seemingly agreeing to fight in December.
Heavyweight king Fury threw AJ a shock championship lifeline after his back-to-back title losses to Oleksandr Usyk.
However, a contract was not signed by the original September 26 deadline and the Gypsy King is talking up fights with other heavyweights.
Fury's promoter, Arum, says the fight wasn't made as Matchroom chief Hearn, who represents Joshua, "wanted to kill" it.
Arum says Hearn "sabotaged" the Battle of Britain.
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The American told : "He wanted to kill it because even as late as yesterday [Monday], if he'd have said let's all get together and sit in a room and get everything finalised, it could have been done in a couple of hours."
Arum added: "I mean, really sad because I really believed both fighters wanted this fight to happen.
"The first issue was well there's different networks involved.
"So, there was a meeting held and, lo and behold, all the networks signed off and they found a way to do it.
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"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."
Hearn 'still open' to talk
However, Hearn says the matter is "still open for discussions".
"We were ready to go. If they would have signed the contract on Monday, they had a fight.
"We were asked to agree the deal by Monday, then we were asked to agree it by Wednesday. We got their comments back on Wednesday.
"We were never gonna sign the fight, and we were told the fight is off.
"So, it's still there. It's still open for discussions. But we're not gonna play a game with a bloke that's just coming out telling AJ it's off and then he's a dosser and he's gotta sign it etc.
"Have your fight if you wanna fight someone else and we'll do our thing, and we'll see what happens."
Fury could instead have a trilogy fight with Derek Chisora.
The WBC champion, 34, has already sent Chisora, 37, a deal to complete their unlikely trilogy series.
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"So have other fighters, so in our mind he's not fighting Anthony Joshua.
"We're more than happy to continue those conversations, but from what we've been told, the deadline has passed."