Via Charles Brun: Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn reacted with confusion and surprise to Tyson Fury’s amusing video post on Friday. Hearn says Fury “bottled” by saying he doesn’t want to fight the next IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.
According to Hearn, Fury asserted in a temporary war BEFORE fighting Usyk for his titles, and they couldn’t allow it.
With Fury only fighting three months ago on October 9 with Deontay Wilder, Hearn didn’t understand he needed to have a makeshift fight before facing Usyk.
It would be one thing if Fury had to take a long break from the competition and needed to adjust to be ready to challenge the undefeated Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs).
However, since Fury required a warm-up just three months after his last fight against Deontay, it seems he no confidence needed for him to have a unified match against Usyk.
Granted, Fury has gained a lot of weight following his win over Wilder last October, but he should be able to lose that weight before fighting at the end of March.
In a recent Fury workout video, he appeared to be 30 lbs overweight, which was a moment for him to take off to return to the 270s for his last two bouts with Deontay.
Of course, if Fury is looking to go down 250s As for the fight with Usyk, yes, it makes sense that he wants to adjust before facing him. Clearly, Fury CANNOT burn 50 lbs of fat before the end of March. That is not realistic.
Hearn said he spoke to Usyk promoter Alex Krassyuk and told him Fury had ‘Bottle.‘In other words, Fury has lost his nerve and lacks the confidence or courage to face Oleksandr undefeated for his title.
I heard that Fury lost
“I don’t know what Fury is thinking. I saw his post on Instagram. ‘AJ has lost money.’ No, he lost money because he turned down the next Usyk fight. That’s the reality,” Eddie Hearn told iFL TV.
“I don’t know what he’s thinking, but let’s get on with the fights that were originally planned,” Hearn said of wanting to continue with the Fury vs. Dillian Whyte and Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk.
“So he will go ahead and fight Dillian Whyte. I don’t know, ‘Ha-ha,’ ‘Hearn said in response to Fury’s amusing video on Twitter. “We are easy.
“If we had a conversation about allowing Fury to fight for the undisputed title [against Usyk]we would have those conversations, but he decided he didn’t want to fight for the undisputed title.
“I saw his post a week ago where he said, ‘You let the Ukrainians take all your belts. Now I will have to do it. ‘ Aren’t you you? Because you said, you need a fight in between. Why do you need a fight in between?
“He has the right to do whatever he wants, but I don’t know what to laugh at. AJ steps onto the plate to fight Oleksander Usyk. Not, ‘I need someone in the middle or wait, I’ll just post a few Instagram posts, pretend I want to fight him.’
“I talked to [Oleksandr’s promoter] Alex Krassyuk last night. They feel that Tyson Fury is bottled [Usyk] the fight against Usyk. One thing you will know about Anthony Joshua, he will fight anyone, and he has proven it time and time again.
Fury doesn’t want to fight Usyk
“No one wants to fight Olekandr Usyk. I don’t blame Tyson Fury, but AJ did it right away. Many people have given up on that [WBO] belt. Looks like he’s ready to fight him again, and take another step.
“It is a difficult task. Look at the long-term deal. Tyson said, ‘No, I want temporary. I don’t want to fight Usyk. To put it bluntly, I want temporary. ‘ It was something else that killed it [the step aside deal for Joshua].
🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/LNf6K9Kcxm
– TYSON FURY (@Tyson_Fury) January 28, 2022
“We don’t necessarily trust a lot of people to get into a fight and then get into a fight with AJ unless it’s specific on paper and there are penalties. But what we don’t allow is a temporary war, then Usyk, and then another.
“Three fights in a year. When did that happen? We’re all open to having that conversation, but it just doesn’t seem relevant. Ultimately, Fury wants to fight in March. He wants to have a warm up fight and then fight Usyk. When it finally happened, he said, ‘I’m going to fight Dillian Whyte instead.’
“I think April 29 is the day that if we win the bid for the wallet [for Fury vs. Whyte] that we must fight with. So we have to fight at that time.
“It was Fury against Whyte. AJ, I think that might be a little later. That will be in May,” Hearn said when Joshua will face Usyk in their rematch.
“There are some silly entrepreneurs out there,“Fury said on Twitter on Friday in response to his choice not to fight Usyk.
