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Eddie Hearn, promoter for former two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, believes a fight with Tyson Fury will always be there as a major event.
Fury, in the aftermath of knocking out Dillian Whyte to retain the WBC title in April, expressed his desire to retire from the sport.
Joshua will face IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk in a rematch, likely on August 20 in Saudi Arabia.
Most observers believe Fury will target the winner of the Usyk-Joshua rematch.
Hearn feels a fight with Fury would still be viable even if Joshua were to lose the Usyk rematch.
“I think the fight between AJ and Fury is always there. I mean, I still get questions walking down the street, even today, ‘When’s AJ fighting Fury?’ It’s like, ‘He’s got Usyk first’. ‘Oh, has he?’ So of course, you don’t want to go back-to-back defeats but Usyk is also pound-for-pound, I think possibly No1 right now.,” Hearn told The Sun.
“Losing to Usyk is never terrible, the Fury fight is always there, but for the undisputed heavyweight world championship, which it would be, it would just be the biggest fight of all time. And I think if AJ beats Usyk, that would be an automatic fight that you will see in December.”
Part of the delay in finalizing the rematch with Usyk, is Joshua’s broadcast status.
Last year, Hearn parted ways with longtime broadcast partner Sky Sports and signed an exclusive content deal with streaming service DAZN.
That agreement did not include the broadcast rights to Joshua.
While it was initially assumed that Joshua would re-sign with Sky Sports, it is now believed that he will sign an exclusive deal with DAZN.
“There’s the broadcast situation, which is like a soap opera in itself and there’s been a lot of work which has gone on behind the scenes,” Hearn said.
“The competition has been fierce to secure the signature of Anthony Joshua and he’s made his decision on the long-term future of his broadcaster. And that will be revealed post-announcement of the fight and everyone will get to hear.”