EXCLUSIVE
Eddie Hearn says crazy money on offer to Anthony Joshua from Saudi but Tyson Fury in no-man’s land
Eddie Hearn believes if Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua were to ever happen, it could only be in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi's have been making quite the splash in the sports world, especially with the recent news of the shock merger between the PGA tour and the Saudi-backed LIV tour in golf.
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A lot of criticism comes when athletes take money from Saudi Arabia, but promoter Hearn believes the amount on offer makes it very difficult to turn down.
"Boxing is a 'dangerous' sport," he told the talkSPORT Breakfast Show.
"I don't have the right to say to Anthony Joshua or Tyson Fury 'you either have the opportunity to fight at Wembley for £20 million or Saudi for £60 million,' it's a very short conversation.
"Ultimately, if Fury and AJ had a choice, they want to do that fight at Wembley Stadium.
Fury vs Joshua
"But, you're not talking about 10 per cent or 20 per cent more [money], you're talking about 300 per cent more - three times the money.
"And if you're AJ, you're thinking he has three to five fights left, maybe one, and it's difficult to take an opportunity away from an athlete."
This comes as Saudi Arabian promotional company, Skills Challenge Entertainment, are attempting to put together an ambitious heavyweight tournament for the end of the year.
It would feature Joshua vs Deontay Wilder and Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk with the winners expected to fight each other.
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As it stands, Hearn believes Joshua, Wilder and Usyk are all in, but Fury is holding up the deal.
"They've guaranteed us that AJ fights Wilder regardless of Fury vs Usyk," Hearn said.
"If all these fights had to happen for this night to happen then I would be very concerned because Usyk has now signed with Skills Challenge, a Saudi Arabian promotional company, and we're in, we've done two fights out there, we're very happy, they know how to make the fights happen. Deontay Wilder is in, Tyson Fury is floating around somewhere.
"I don't think he's going to take his piece of the fight out there. He asked for a lot of money, he knows how difficult the Oleksandr Usyk fight is and I just think now he'll feel like because AJ, Usyk and Wilder are committed subject to contract, Fury will feel like 'I've got the final say here, I can hold everyone to ransom.'
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"But, I just don't think they'll have it and I think we'll probably end up moving forward with AJ against Wilder."
Hearn continued: "[Fury] is in no-man's land. They've reached out to us to do the AJ fight and we love that fight.
"But, when I speak to Anthony Joshua, whose got a plan to fight August 12 in London and then Deontay Wilder in December, and I say you've got to scrap those two fights because Tyson Fury has come on Instagram and said he wants to fight you, honestly the belief level is zero, but we can't just put it aside.
"Fury needs to fight, he's not in great shape at the moment, not physically, but in terms of his position, because he doesn't want to wait until December, he wants to fight in September but there's no one to fight...
"If the Saudi opportunity goes away then we'll definitely look at a Tyson Fury fight for September, but right now he's focused on August 12 and he's been in camp for a few weeks in Texas."
The August 12 bout that Hearn is referring to would be against Dillian Whyte, as the promoter revealed an offer was made last Friday and he has a call with Whyte's team in the next 24 hours.
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