Joshua fight at risk over promoter row, says Fury

Tyson Fury says his long-awaited all-British heavyweight fight against Anthony Joshua in December is in jeopardy because of a row between rival promoters.

The bout was announced earlier this week following years of failed negotiations, with the pair set to fight at Cardiff's Principality Stadium on 11 December.

The event, which will be broadcast on Netflix, was confirmed as a collaboration between Saudi boxing powerbroker Turki Alalshikh's The Ring and UFC president Dana White, but this appears to be the sticking point.

Eddie Hearn, Joshua's promoter, has been at odds with White in recent months, and says the UFC head's involvement is a breach of their contract.

Fury says Matchroom promoter Hearn's reluctance to work with White is putting the fight in doubt.

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

"It's mainly to do with Eddie Hearn's ego. He's making up a million different things and threatening we're not going to fight.

"Now you've got Turki Alalshikh finding alternative real men who will fight at the drop of a hand. Eddie Hearn has cost us the biggest fight in boxing history."

Hearn has been publicly feuding with UFC president White since the launch of Zuffa Boxing earlier this year.

Speaking to IFL TV, Hearn said White's involvement in the promotion of the Fury and Joshua fight "ain't happening", despite Netflix's news release.

"Dana White cannot be involved with this fight promotion. Netflix clearly didn't get the memo. No-one talks to each other," said Hearn.

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

Fury's promoter Frank Warren said White was influential in securing the deal with Netflix after the fight was confirmed.

Fury's claim the bout could be off follows his post on social media earlier this month suggesting that Joshua, 36, was backing out of the fight, before calling for a third match-up with Oleksandr Usyk.

There was no official statement from Hearn or Warren in the news release sent out by Netflix to announce the fight.

BBC Sport has contacted Matchroom, Warren's company Queensberry Promotions, The Ring and Netflix for comment.

The dispute between Hearn and White is the latest stumbling block following years of failed negotiations around the fight.

In 2020, the two camps agreed the basis of a two-fight deal. In 2021, contracts were signed for an undisputed heavyweight contest, only for Deontay Wilder's successful arbitration case to force Fury into a third fight with the American.

Then, in 2022, Joshua accepted a 60-40 split to challenge Fury, but that attempt also fell apart.

Fury and Joshua finally signed contracts for the bout earlier this year, with the date and venue confirmed this week.