Eddie Hearn is holding out hope that the lucrative Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua fight can be salvaged for August 14 in Saudi Arabia.
If that isn’t possible and Fury moves forward with a third fight against Deontay Wilder, Hearn intends to move on to Plan B by the end of this week. The most probable Plan B for Joshua, according to Hearn, is a mandatory defense of his WBO heavyweight title against Oleksandr Usyk.
Hearn, whose company promotes Joshua, discussed Joshua potentially facing Usyk next during an interview posted Tuesday morning to Matchroom Boxing’s YouTube channel.
“I have been focusing on Plan A,” Hearn said. “The only fight that we had our mind on was Tyson Fury. And we hope that that fight can still take place on August 14th. The game changed [Monday] night, where we to have a Plan B in place and probably a Plan C as well. And we have a couple of different options. Of course, the one that springs to mind immediately is the WBO mandatory, of Oleksandr Usyk. You know, they’ve been quite patient.
“And I think, really, we’re in a situation now where if Team Fury don’t get themselves together, get their act together by the end of this week, we will have no option but to look for an alternative fight. AJ wants to fight this summer. Oleksandr Usyk is the mandatory. We have two of three other options as well. But it would be an ideal world if the right deal could be done to maintain those belts and to keep the Fury fight alive for probably December, but for the undisputed [championship] as well.”
The left-handed Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs), the former undisputed cruiserweight champion, has long been the WBO’s mandatory challenger for Joshua’s title. The unbeaten Ukrainian southpaw most recently defeated Dereck Chisora (32-11, 23 KOs) by unanimous decision in a 12-rounder October 31 at Wembley Arena in London.
The WBO later ordered Usyk to face unbeaten Brit Joe Joyce (12-0, 11 KOs) in an elimination match. Negotiations between handlers for Usyk and Joyce stalled, but Usyk might be able to bypass that fight if Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) and Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs) don’t fight next for Fury’s WBC championship and Joshua’s IBF, IBO, WBA and WBO belts.
“So, I had a very good conversation this morning with Alex Krassyuk,” Hearn said in reference to Usyk’s promoter. “You know, he’s a partner of ours. We’ve worked very well on Oleksandr Usyk. And I just sort of said to him, I was just very honest. I said, ‘Look, Team Fury are trying to resolve the issue. If they don’t, there’s a very good chance we could be fighting you.’ So, if we’re all sensible, let’s move forward. Let’s try and look at the options to get that locked in. Again, we’re in a situation where we just don’t know how likely it is to get a full venue for August, you know, in the UK.
“That was one of the reasons that [the UK] was ruled out for the Fury fight, is we couldn’t get the confirmation from Wembley [Stadium] and other venues that they would be allowed full capacity. But we move forward with that and, you know, we continue those talks with Alex Krassyuk this week. And like I said, Plan B and Plan C still now comes into effect. But we hope Plan A is, you know, evolves and can come into fruition.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
