Frank Warren, co-promoter for WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, has fired back at Eddie Hearn, who guides the career of WBO, IBF, IBO, WBA champion Anthony Joshua.
In a recent interview, Hearn lashed out over last week's crumbling of the Fury vs. Joshua unification.
The two sides had been negotiating for months and a deal appeared to be close. Both parties had agreed on a tentative date of August 14 in Saudi Arabia.
But, last Monday an arbitrator issued a ruling that ordered Fury to honor a contractual clause for an immediate rematch due to Deontay Wilder.
The Fury-Wilder trilogy is already penciled in for a date of July 24 in Las Vegas, with both boxers signing their respective contracts.
Hearn would later indicate that Fury and his handlers did nothing to "save" the unification fight with Joshua.
But, Warren says a deal for Fury-Wilder was never "done" as Hearn claimed in several interviews - and Warren also alleges that his promotional rival breached a signed agreement regarding the negotiations.
“At the start of the year, all parties involved in the fight - fighters, promoters, managers - all signed a contract as to how the negotiations would take place. In that agreement there was a clause that made it very clear there was an arbitration situation going on as far as Tyson is concerned - so everyone was aware of it and that we were awaiting the outcome of that," Warren told The Sun.
“There was another clause in there regarding confidentiality and that we would make announcements together, so that we would all be on the same page. Within a very short space of time, Eddie Hearn breached that agreement by making announcements. Every week there was something, announcements about announcements, the fight is done and so forth.
"That was totally untrue. The fight wasn't done, it wasn't signed and every time I did an interview I just said the truth. All these announcements, that were being made on a regular basis by Hearn, I don't think helped and caused a lot of confusion.”
Warren also believes Hearn's antics of ridiculing Wilder's co-manager, Shelly Finkel, didn't help their cause. In other words, Team Wilder was not looking do any favors for Hearn and Joshua.
“Shelly Finkel and Al Haymon, who work with Wilder, were not interested in remuneration and said they wanted the fight. It probably didn't help, all the disparaging remarks over the last couple of years Eddie Hearn has made about Shelly and all the names he has called him. I'm sure he wasn't looking to do him a favor," Warren said.
On top of that, the legal team behind WBO mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk were planning to sue if Fury-Joshua went forward.
“Usyk had written to the WBO - and subsequently all parties concerned - saying that they will be suing if the fight goes ahead. So even if we had won the arbitration we would still be sued by Usyk. There would have been an action and they would have been looking for injunctions to stop it," Warren said.
“So that wasn't dealt with or brought to anybody's attention. Pot, kettle and all that from Hearn. One minute he is telling everybody I'm not involved at all in the negotiations - and now it is my fault.”