Eddie Hearn hits back at heckling fan as promoter blamed for AJ vs Fury collapse

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    Eddie Hearn has responded to a fan who heckled him as he was blamed for the collapse of the Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury fight. Negotiations for a blockbuster heavyweight title clash took place last month but sadly the pair could not agree terms.

    Instead, Fury penned a deal to fight Derek Chisora on December 3 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which will mark their third bout against one another. While speaking at a live Q&A, a fan yelled: “You pulled him [AJ’] out!”, which prompted a wry smile from Hearn, and laughs from the rest of the crowd.

    He then went on to share his point of view as to why two of the sport’s biggest boxers were unable to come to an agreement to clash next month. “I knew we were going to get blamed, but basically what happened is Anthony Joshua lost to Oleksandr Usyk, we all saw that mentally that was a tough defeat for him,” Hearn said during the chat uploaded to YouTube by iFL TV.

    READ MORE: Tyson Fury 'can't handle the heat' insists Eddie Hearn after storming off podcast

    “Tyson Fury does what Tyson Fury does, stuck the bait out there for AJ, called him out and AJ told me ‘I want the fight’. Should he have accepted the fight? Maybe not at that moment. But ultimately he is the boss, and he wanted to fight Tyson Fury.

    "We started negotiations – it actually went quite well – and then as things are going well Tyson Fury pops up on Instagram and says we have to sign the contract by the end of the day. I think people over the last couple of weeks have seen maybe a different side to him, but he is still a very clever Tyson Fury.”

    He went on: “Tyson Fury, although he is a little bit up and down and I don’t believe everything he says, he is a tremendous fighter. For me the Anthony Joshua fight is a fight that has to happen, it does.”

    Do you want to see Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury clash?Let us know in the comments section.

    In a separate chat with iFL, Joshua explained why he is not Tyson Fury's opponent at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on December 3. “Deadlines weren’t met. Simplistic forms, deadlines weren’t met,” AJ said. “Fury wanted to fight on a certain date and when you’re dealing with a situation that’s so big, it’s not a simple fight, it’s a big fight. I could go into further detail, but basically, it probably did need a little bit more time. The deadline he set for someone of my capacity wasn’t fit for the date he had in mind and it didn’t work out.”

    On multiple occasions Fury hopped onto social media and demanded AJ sign the dotted line by certain dates, otherwise the fight would be off the table. In response, Joshua said: “I got a good team around me who will try and make it work. The lawyers are going back and forth so if he says one thing on social media, that doesn’t deter lawyers from doing their job.

    “I just wait until I get a phone call to say it’s dead in the water but until I hear it from my representatives I don’t really listen to social media stuff.”

    The likes of a rematch with Dillian Whyte and a fight with Deontay Wilder have been brought up, but currently no negotiations for those bouts have taken place. For now, Joshua is taking a break from boxing after two crushing losses to Oleksandr Usyk.

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    • Anthony Joshua
    • Eddie Hearn
    • Tyson Fury

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