‘We should celebrate’: Eddie Hearn provides Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury update after contracts signed
The Matchroom promoter has all but ruled out the UK to stage the first fight between the world heavyweight champions
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Your support makes all the difference.Eddie Hearn has urged boxing fights to “celebrate” Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury signing contracts to fight twice this year to decide the undisputed world heavyweight champion, despite “hurdles to overcome”.
The Matchroom promoter admits it’s “unlikely” the fight will take place in the UK due to restrictions on the capacity at venues amid Covid-19 restrictions.
But Hearn has called on the sport to get excited by the latest development, while also revealing that he is now able to “close” a site venue and date following both fighters putting pen to paper.
“It’s momentum, it’s good news, it’s called excitement,” Hearn told IFL TV. “There are still hurdles to overcome, we’ve got to decide where this will take place and when, everybody is moving in the right direction in terms of dates.
“We’re now moving forward to confirm the date and the venue, I think we should celebrate. We’ve still got work to do. Nobody, can be accused of not trying to get this done. We have to go finish the job.
“We can finally go back to these sites and say, ‘it’s done’. The only thing that’s pending is for the parties to report back to the fighters with the various site offers and collectively decide where we want to decide this fight.
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“It’s due to take place in June, early July. Talks have taken place behind the scenes due to this time frame [28 days from 15 March]. Everybody has to be happy with the venue and the date, it’s not that much of a conspiracy or a big deal, we’ve got it agreed, we have numerous site offers. We can go close one now. They both want the fight desperately.”
Hearn also rejected suggestions that the fight is destined to take place in Saudi Arabia, with several options still available.
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“Not necessarily,” Hearn added. “We’ve staged an extremely successful fight with Saudi Arabia before [for the second fight between Joshua and Andy Ruiz Jr], it was a wonderful experience.
“They’re interested, of course they are, but there are multiple territories in the Middle East that want to stage this fight and four additional territories outside of that who have made approaches.”
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