Eddie Hearn explains heated 'KO' jibe at rival boxing promoter after tensions boil over before Joshua vs Dubois

Eddie Hearn has revealed that he jokingly threatened to knock promotional rival Ben Shalom out and has mocked the boxing chief for quivering like "Casper the Ghost."

Along with Queensberry Promotions boss Frank Warren, the duo both have fighters on the bill in the mega world heavyweight title clash between Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois in front of a record crowd of 96,000 fans at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night. As well as former two-time heavyweight world champion Joshua, Matchroom Boxing CEO Hearn also has ex featherweight world champion Josh Warrington on the card while BOXXER chief Shalom is hoping duo Joshua Buatsi and Tyler Denny do the business for his stable against Scottish fighter Willy Hutchinson and middleweight contender Hamzah Sheeraz respectively.

At Thursday evening's press conference at Guild Hall in London, footage emerged of the two promoters involved in a heated debate on stage. When asked about what was said after Friday's weigh-in, Hearn confirmed that he had shared a joke with Shalom that did not appear to go down well with his promotional rival.

Speaking to iFL TV, he said: "We were both joking. He came up to me and said 'why are you up here for this fight?' and I said 'I'll knock out out'. I felt really bad and do have to apologise to him because it was when he started quivering and went white like Casper the Ghost that I actually felt terrible. It was only a throw-away line but if he thinks it was serious then I do apologise because I felt bad after when I saw his face."

Hearn then jokingly continued his assault by pretending to take a phone call from Guild Hall, quipping: "Hello is that the Guild Hall? Yeah you had a press conference last night? Is that lost and found? Yeah you haven't