Eddie Hearn has sent a warning to the boxing governing bodies to not bring politics in the way of an Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury match-up — or risk not being involved at all.
Joshua defeated mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev last Saturday night in London, seemingly clearing the way for a pair of superfights with Fury over the course of next year. One apparent roadblock, however, comes in the form of Oleksandr Usyk, who now sits as the WBO mandatory. Usyk seems unwilling to move aside for a unification bout between Fury and Joshua, and it could be that the WBO demand Joshua face the Ukrainian next, or risk being stripped of his title.
Should that be the case, Hearn says, the belt will be dropped. If that ends up playing out, the Matchroom promoter can even see a scenario where Joshua and Fury send a strong message to the governing bodies, and removing titles from the conversation all together.
“We’ve just got to be a bit careful because you may be on the verge of saying, ‘Let’s just get rid of politics right now. Let’s just drop all the belts because if we lose one belt, we might as well lose them all’,” Hearn said, speaking at the Canelo vs. Smith undercard press conference. “It gets to the stage where you’ve got the biggest fight in world boxing, you are paying each governing body hundreds of thousands of dollars [and] now you have got another guy [Usyk] who probably wants seven figures to step aside.
“We have just got to be careful because ultimately the aim of this fight has always been to be for the undisputed championship. … We will do whatever we can to make sure that every belt in boxing is on the line in the Tyson Fury fight. What we won’t be and what we won’t do is be held to ransom and we won’t let politics get involved in a fight that boxing needs.”
Eddie Hearn warns the WBA, WBC, IBF & WBO that all their belts could be vacated for Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury…
[🎥 @MatchroomBoxing] pic.twitter.com/AYXXXJFpCN— Michael Benson (@MichaelBensonn) December 16, 2020
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