Eddie Hearn, promoter of IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, has rejected suggestions that Tom Schwarz was every mentioned as a potential opponent for the unified champ - at least in the last few years.
Schwarz received a lottery type opportunity, as he faces lineal champion Tyson Fury on June 15th in Las Vegas.
The contest will be the first bout for Fury under his new co-promotional deal with Top Rank and ESPN.
Since the fight was announced, Hearn has lashed out over Fury's opposition.
He views the bout as a severe downgrade in comparison to Fury's last bout, with WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder.
Fury was in talks to face Wilder in a rematch, after they fought to a controversial draw in December.
But Top Rank wanted him to take one or two fights before a rematch with Wilder.
Schwarz is undefeated, ranked at 2 by the WBO, but very much untested with Fury being a huge step up in opposition.
As far as Hearn, he says Schwarz has never even been a consideration for Joshua - despite rumors claiming otherwise.
"Don’t be absolutely ridiculous. Am I sure? 100 percent," Hearn told IFL TV.
"When are you talking about? For his debut? No, no. I might be talking in like his [Joshua’s] sixth or seventh fight, not taking the p**s, genuinely, at that level, did someone say to me, 'what about Tom Schwarz?' I don’t know. From when he [Joshua] won the world title, even before that, no.
"Maybe when he boxed the likes of the Russian [Denis Bakhtov] or Jason Gavern, those kind of people, you know when he was like 6-0, 7-0, 8-0, did someone say to me 'what about Tom Schwarz?' – who might have been 10-0 at the time – maybe. But never.
"I don’t blame Tyson Fury [for facing Schwarz]. Top Rank are the ones who should be saying what are we doing here? Again, fair play to Tyson. ‘But when you’ve been mandated to fight Deontay Wilder, the rematch of supposedly the fight of the year, and you turn it down and walk away and fight Tom Schwarz, it don’t look great."
