Speaking to The Stomping Ground, Hearn made his position clear.
“Completely untrue. There is absolutely nothing signed with Anthony Joshua to fight Tyson Fury next. There is nothing agreed,” Hearn said.
Reports over the weekend, including comments from talkSPORT’s Gareth A Davies, suggested the fight had already been agreed and would land on Netflix. Hearn rejected that outright.
“There have been conversations, deep conversations prior to the accident,” Hearn said. “That he was going to fight Jake Paul, then fight in February or March in Saudi Arabia, then fight Tyson Fury. Then obviously the accident happened.”
Joshua’s schedule changed after the car crash in Nigeria that claimed the lives of two of his team members. Since then, Hearn says discussions around Fury have not progressed beyond early talks.
“Since then, there have been no conversations really about that fight, other than in the last few days conversations with Dr. Rakan, Sela, about starting to think about revisiting the plan,” Hearn said.
Joshua is expected to return to training camp soon, with a comeback fight being lined up for late summer. That bout will serve to rebuild his timing, sharpness and conditioning before any major fight is considered.
Fury, meanwhile, is already in camp for his next fight against Arslanbek Makhmudov. He has also named Joshua among the opponents he wants, along with a third fight with Oleksandr Usyk and the winner of Fabio Wardley vs Daniel Dubois.
For now, the situation is simple. Talks have taken place before. Nothing is signed.
Joshua’s next step comes first. Then the bigger fights get discussed.
