Tyson Fury’s promoter Bob Arum has slammed fellow kingpin Eddie Hearn and Anthony Joshua for failing to get the huge mega-fight over the line.
The legendary boxing promoter has accused Hearn of ‘jerking’ Fury’s team around and blamed him for the breakdown in contract negotiations.
The world has been clamouring for the fight between the two British heavyweights for years.
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It seemed like we were headed in that direction when Fury backflipped on his retirement and called out AJ.
Joshua's response indicated that the fight was on, pending negotiations.
However, after talks broke down between the two teams Fury is now set to defend his world little in a trilogy fight against Derek Chisora on December 3.
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Arum told The Main Even Boxing Podcast: “Obviously Fury wanted to fight Joshua. And I really believe Joshua wanted to fight Fury.
“But his promoter Eddie Hearn slow-walked the deal because he was really not anxious for that fight to be made.
“Because Joshua has lost three out of his last five fights, and to put him in with a killer like Fury is pretty reckless.”
Arum claims Hearn never intended to sign off on the deal.
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He continued: “I think Eddie said he was interested, but we could never get back documents, we never could really contact (him).
“I’ve been in this business for over 60 years, so I know when another promoter really has no intention to make a fight.
“As far as I was concerned there were no issues, once it was agreed on a 60/40 (purse) split, and once the television networks had agreed who would do what, there were no other issues.
“I mean, just get a contract back and sign it! But that proved to be impossible because Hearn didn’t want the fight to happen.
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“I really can’t blame him but he didn’t have to jerk us around the way he did.”
It contradicts claims from Eddie Hearn to SPORTbible Australia that Fury made it impossible to get the contract together and signed.
He said: “We waited a long time for the contract, which was all over the place. We ended up going back on the contract and Tyson Fury came out publicly and gave us 48 hours to sign it – which was impossible.
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“We went back to his promoters who were saying ‘let me try and calm him down a bit’, but then he came out again and was saying ‘I’ll give you one more day, last chance, that is it’.
"Obviously we still weren’t in a position to sign so he came out and said ‘that’s it’.
“Then he goes back on the propaganda machine and says ‘well, AJ didn’t want it’.
“Well, hang on, we’ve spent two weeks working with your promoters on this, you set the deadlines that were actually unrealistic."
Featured Image Credit: Everett Collection Inc / Alamy. PA Images / Alamy.Topics: Boxing, Eddie Hearn, Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, Bob Arum