Promoter Eddie Hearn has no desire to forgive Jarrell Miller for his bald-faced attempt to cheat his way to the heavyweight title against Hearn’s top client, Anthony Joshua.

At the same time the Matchroom boss won’t necessarily rule out a possibility that the two could meet in the ring at some point in the future.

Joshua, the former unified heavyweight champion from London, is scheduled to headline a Dec. 23 card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, against Otto Wallin. On the undercard, Miller will take on Daniel Dubois.

Joshua and Miller were supposed to meet in the ring in June of 2019 at New York’s Madison Square Garden, but Miller was booted from the matchup after he tested positive for several performance-enhancing drugs. Joshua would go on to get knocked out by late replacement Andy Ruiz.

The disgraced Miller, a 35-year-old native of Brooklyn, returned to the ring for the first time in nearly four years last year as he works to rehabilitate his damaged career.

At the press conference for the Dec. 23 card, Hearn and Miller came to a head-to-head confrontation, which Hearn recounted in a recent interview.

“He came up to me and said, ‘Oh, you’re scared aren’t you now, on the stage,’” Hearn told Seconds Out. “‘I ain’t f------ scared of you.’” I said, ‘I know what you did.’ And he went, ‘Why didn’t you back me like you backed Conor Benn or something?’

I said, ‘Because I don’t believe you.’ And he said, ‘Well, the next time you’re in New York, I’ll pull up on you, or I’ll have someone pull up on you.’ I said, ‘Go f--- yourself.’ I said, ‘I like you, but I know what you did.’ And that was it.”

“Listen, I don’t mind Jarrell Miller,” Hearn added. “I think AJ was very lenient on him, because what I would’ve said was, ‘You’ve had your chance and we all know what you did to try and get an advantage to beat me, so bye bye.'”

Bad blood notwithstanding, Hearn said it was not entirely out of the question that a Joshua vs. Miller fight could materialize down the line, especially if Joshua gives his consent.

“Good luck to him against Dubois,” Hearn said. “It’s a very good fight, and if he (Miller) wins and somehow if the public is desperate for that fight, who knows in the future.”

“It’s not my choice, it’s up to AJ,” Hearn added.

Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.