Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury "dead in the water" as confusion reigns over fight

Tyson Fury's £200million mega-fight against Anthony Joshua is "dead in the water" according to Bob Arum.

The veteran promoter, who represents Fury, has this week played down claims an official announcement.

His opposite number Eddie Hearn, who promotes Joshua has insisted a deal is almost done and that a summer fight in Saudi Arabia could be confirmed this weekend.

But Arum told the Daily Telegraph : "It will take months for the Saudis to do their due diligence on such a huge deal," explained Arum. "It is not just a site fee, there are ancillary demands from the Saudis stretching into the broadcast deals and other things, it could take months for it all to play out. It could even take until 2022 the way it looks right now.

"The fight in July or August is dead in the water as far as we are concerned. The two fighters need to go and have other fights this summer while the negotiations for that fight in the Middle East conclude.

"It is absurd what Hearn is saying that it is a done deal. If we had just done a site deal without all the other complications that have arisen, we would have a fight by now.

"Tyson Fury is fuming about it and is refusing to keep waiting."

Fury and Joshua signed a contract last month but no venue or date had been agreed.

Saudi Arabia then had an offer in the region of $150m accepted by both parties with a range of dates from July 24 to August 7 under consideration.

And while Hearn admitted there had been a delay in finalising a contract, he insisted he was close to securing a deal.

"I saw the comments last night from Bob Arum," he told Sky Sports. "I messaged him last night and said, 'Is there something you want to tell me?'

"We last had communication on Friday of last week and Thursday. He said in the interview, we haven't spoken for two weeks, yet five days ago he was telling the world it was a done deal.

"I think he's trying to put pressure on. We're a couple of days later than expected. The situation is still the same.

"We have an offer in writing from a site, the same site that we've dealt with before. The same people we've dealt with before. We know all about them. This is a done deal from that site."

Hearn admitted he needs to have a deal agreed by the end of next week otherwise Fury could instead fight Deontay Wilder for a third time.

Joshua could also be forced to fight mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk, delaying a fight with Fury until at least the end of this year.

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