Promoter Hearn 'not very confident' about prospect of Joshua v Fury fight in December

Promoter Eddie Hearn says he doubts the heavyweight world-title fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua will take place in December given the former’s repeated public comments, but says both Matchroom Boxing and Queensbury Promotions are working hard to get the deal done.

WBC champion Fury, 34, has been increasingly more active on social media this past week, demanding on Monday that fellow Briton Joshua sign the contract for the proposed December 3 bout. Then, on Thursday, Fury said that he had extended the deadline until the end of the day.

Speaking to The National on Thursday evening, as he discussed the world title bout between Dmitry Bivol and Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez in Abu Dhabi in November, Joshua's promoter Hearn said: “We’re baffled, really. We’re all working hard to try to get the deal done, and all of a sudden we get these imposed deadlines randomly on Instagram, then [Fury's] pulled out of the fight, then he’s offered it to someone else. Then two days later he comes back and says, ‘Actually we’ll give you today’.

“It just doesn’t work like that. We’re all working really hard with [Fury promoter] Queensbury to try to make the fight. We’ve accepted all the terms, but we’ve got to paper it in the correct fashion. It’s the biggest fight in boxing, so it’s going to take a couple weeks to finalise a long-form agreement – that’s not unusual.

“But Tyson Fury says one thing, does another, and we don’t know really where we stand. But we’ll continue to work away and hopefully he’ll allow it to take its course and try to get this on. But I don’t hold my breath.”

Joshua's team have verbally accepted Fury's offer of a 60-40 purse split for December 3, which is expected to be held at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium.

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