British promoter Eddie Hearn shared his plans for the future of his ward Anthony Joshua after the news that the US arbitration ordered Tyson Fury to hold a third fight against Deontay Wilder.
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I have been focusing on plan A. 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 last night where we have 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 that springs to mind immediately is the WBO mandatory of Alexander Usyk. 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. Alexander Usyk is the mandatory. We have two or three other options as well but it would be in 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 as well.
So I had a very good conversation this morning with Alex Krasyuk. You know he's a partner of ours. We've worked very well on Alexander Usyk and I just sort of said to him: Look team Fury is 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 is to get a full venue for August in the UK. That was one of the reasons that it was ruled out for the Fury fight is we couldn't get the confirmation from Wembley and other venues that there would be allowed full capacity. But we moved forward with that and you know we continue those talks with Alex Krasyuk this week.
And like I said plan B and plan C still now comes into effect but we hope plan A evolves and can come into fruition. It's the magic question but when do you expect all this to be resolved infusing nowhere I think two weeks is a good answer I always give. But I think now is the answer to that I think ‘this week’.
We can't wait around. We have a deal in place with Tyson Fury. We provided an unbelievable opportunity to him. We were told by his team, Bob Arum that the arbitration wouldn't be an issue. We could move forward with this fight. They were wrong and that's on them. That's their responsibility. That's now their problem. We hope they can solve that problem but we have to look after ourselves. We have to look after Anthony Joshua.
We have to maintain the position of unified world champion and those talks will continue. And we want to be in a position by the end of this week to know are we fighting Tyson Fury or are we moving forward with another option.
So I’m exciting, disappointing, boxing. But let's see if team Fury can pull something positive out the bag for their fighter. I think he'll be disappointed. I think he was told that he could move forward with an AJ fight.
Everyone's happy and we have to see what today brings but for us business as usual: move forward for the career of Anthony Joshua, make the right moves and keep breathing." Hearn said.
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