Eddie Hearn has been encouraged thus far by the nature of his conversations with representatives for Tyson Fury.

Their promoters didn’t waste any time discussing putting together an Anthony Joshua-Fury fight in the immediate aftermath of Joshua’s ninth-round knockout of Kubrat Pulev on Saturday night in London.

Deontay Wilder’s pending mediation regarding the third fight he feels Fury owes him next could impact their timetable, but Hearn, Bob Arum, who is Fury’s co-promoter, and their network partners believe what’s being billed as the biggest British boxing match in the history of the sport is the only fight to make next for those two heavyweight champions.

Hearn, whose company promotes Joshua, mentioned “some minor stuff to sort out” during an appearance Monday on “The Ak And Barak Show,” which streams Mondays through Fridays on DAZN and SiriusXM.

“We’ve had some good calls,” Hearn said. “There’s definitely some work to do, but it’s kind of everyone just agrees we’ve gotta make the fight. Do you know what I mean? So, sometimes when you’re negotiating a fight, you know, you might get off the phone and go, ‘Um, I’m not sure about this.’ … I’ve not felt like that during one conversation so far about the fight. So, I’m very hopeful.

“I think we need to move forward now with the contracts. Some minor stuff to sort out, a couple issues around the TV partners and where the fight’s gonna take place, but all of which are very resolvable. And honestly, like for AJ, for us and the team, for Fury and them and the team, we all feel like this is the absolute, 100-percent fight to take next.”

Whenever and wherever a Joshua-Fury fight is held, it won’t take place until they can accommodate many more fans than the roughly 1,000 that attended Joshua’s win over Pulev at Wembley Arena. The 31-year-old Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs), the IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO champ, and the 32-year-old Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs), the WBC champ, easily could pack 90,000 fans into Wembley Stadium for their fight, yet that can’t happen until COVID-19 restrictions are lifted for sporting events in the United Kingdom. 

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.