Fury vs Joshua: According to Bob Arum, Eddie Hearn “sabotaged” the proposed Fury vs Joshua all-British heavyweight match by “slow-playing” the discussions and being against the fight from the start.
Last week, Joshua and his team were given deadlines by Tyson Fury to sign a contract confirming the fight for December 3. In response, the 32-year-old said he intended to sign the contract but that, given the intricate technicalities involved, it was in the hands of his attorneys.
Hearn acknowledged on Monday that talks had failed and that the fight was over “as far as we’re concerned,” but he was still open to additional dialogue.
But to Arum’s statement to Sky Sports, Hearn “killed this fight.”
Even as recently as Monday, if he had said, “Let’s all come together, sit in a room, and get everything finalised, it could have been done in a couple of hours,” Arum said. “He wanted to kill it.”
Arum continued, “I mean, extremely sorry because I honestly believed both fighters wanted to have this fight.” “The first problem was that several networks were engaged. A meeting was organised as a result, and lo and behold, all the networks approved and figured out how to do it.
“Now that Mr. Hearn had gotten involved, he was slow-playing the fight because he didn’t want it to start right away. Since I’ve worked in this industry for almost 60 years, I can tell when someone is slow-playing a negotiation because they don’t want things to happen.
“After the percentages were chosen, there were no significant problems here. Hearn refused to do it, even though you could sit in a room for three hours and get everything resolved. Frank Warren and George, partners from Queensberry, were ready to meet with Eddie in person to resolve the issue, so I believe that was bad on his behalf.
There were no problems, so it is in my opinion repugnant for a bout to be called off where there are no problems because one promoter opposes it and is stalling.
Hearn claimed that by expressing reservations about the fight occurring, Arum was dousing the prospective conflict.
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