Joshua, Fury fight hits fresh setback

The long-awaited all-British heavyweight showdown between Tyson Fury and British-Nigerian former world champion, Anthony Joshua, has been thrown into doubt just days after being confirmed, following a row between rival promoters over the involvement of UFC president Dana White.

The bout was announced on Thursday for Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on December 11, ending years of failed negotiations. The event was confirmed as a collaboration between Saudi boxing powerbroker Turki Alalshikh’s The Ring and White, and will be broadcast on Netflix. That arrangement, however, has become the sticking point.

Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, has been at odds with White for months, and says the UFC boss’s involvement breaches their contract. Fury accused Hearn and Joshua of trying to pull out of the fight over the dispute.

“Anthony Joshua and Eddie Hearn are trying to pull out of this fight. They are saying they are not going to fight now,” Fury posted on Instagram.”

“It is mainly to do with Eddie Hearn’s ego. He is making up a million different things and threatening that we are not going to fight. Now you have got Turki Alalshikh finding alternative real men who will fight at the drop of a hat. Eddie Hearn has cost us the biggest fight in boxing history.”

Hearn has been publicly feuding with White since the launch of Zuffa Boxing earlier this year, a dispute that has also involved White signing former Matchroom fighter, Conor Benn. Speaking to IFL TV, Hearn insisted White cannot be part of the promotion.

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“Dana White cannot be involved with this fight promotion. Netflix clearly did not get the memo. No one talks to each other,” Hearn said.

“Then Netflix say the fight is in conjunction with Dana White. Now we have to go through that process and deal with it. It is a little bit annoying, but as I have shown through the UK battle that we won, we stand by our contracts.”

Fury’s promoter, Frank Warren, said White had been instrumental in securing the Netflix deal after the fight was confirmed. Neither Hearn nor Warren issued an official statement in Netflix’s release announcing the bout.

A press conference is reportedly pencilled in for Wednesday in London, and both camps are expected to want the dispute resolved quickly, with fewer than 11 weeks left before the scheduled fight.

The fight has survived several false starts since 2020, when the two camps first agreed a two-fight deal. Contracts for an undisputed heavyweight contest were signed in 2021, only for Deontay Wilder’s arbitration case to force Fury into a third fight with the American.

A 2022 attempt, in which Joshua accepted a 60-40 financial split, also collapsed before Fury and Joshua finally signed contracts for the Cardiff bout earlier this year.