BOB ARUM CALLS HEARN A DESPERADO, WOULD NOW BET FURY-JOSHUA WON’T HAPPEN
“If I had to bet whether the Tyson Fury versus Anthony Joshua fight would happen or not, I would say no,” said the Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum on Wednesday afternoon, a day after he and Fury went for an arbitration session in California, to work on mediation stemming from a proposed third bout between Fury and Deontay Wilder.
On Tuesday, Arum and Fury jetted to a section of northern California, Napa County, where the arbiter for the Fury-Wilder arbitration has a property, to see if the parties involved can smooth over their differences.
I asked Arum, point blank, if things could start seguing from mediation to negotiation.
“A switch to negotiation is possible,” Arum said.
But, he’s still working on the summer time setup for the 32 year old Fury to battle AJ. But he didn’t seem much enthused for how the planning is going, and had some hard words for promoter Eddie Hearn, who is handling planning from the AJ side. “As far as I can see this whole thing with Eddie and (a Fury vs AJ fight in Saudi Arabia) is just a mirage,” Arum continued.
Arum speculates that Hearn is feeling the heat because his deal with AJ is soon to expire. “Eddie is desperate, he has one more fight with AJ, and he wants it to be the fight against Fury. But if a fight against Tyson is delayed, to the winter, then AJ has to fight Oleksandr Usyk, and that’s not that big a fight. Eddie is a desperado here.”
On Thursday, Arum told RING, a Zoom call will be held, with Arum and Frank Warren, who with his Queensberry outfit co-promotes Fury (30-0 with 21 KOs), and others. “Eddie’s out of time,” Arum stated. “Eddie hasn’t talked to us for two weeks!”