Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua: Eddie Hearn 'not very confident' as contract talks stall

Eddie Hearn is ‘not very confident’ Anthony Joshua will end up fighting Tyson Fury next – but will do everything in his power to get the deal over the line.

The Gypsy King publicly challenged Joshua to a ‘Battle of the Brits’ in Cardiff on December 3, offering him the immediate chance to get back in the world title picture following his back-to-back defeats to Oleksandr Usyk.

Those conversations were temporarily put on hold for a couple of weeks to honour the passing of Queen Elizabeth II who died at the age of 96 on September 8.

However, it appears that they are still no closer to agreeing a deal to fight each other, despite reportedly resuming talks earlier this week.

READ MORE: Tyson Fury warned to expect backlash if Anthony Joshua fight doesn’t happen next

In an interview with The National, promoter Hearn cast doubt on the prospect of AJ facing Fury before the end of the year.

Asked how strongly he feels the fight will happen, he replied: “Not very confident. After the last 72 hours, I think it’ll be very difficult to be confident. But we carry on. I’ve got a call with Queensbury after this and we’re trying.

“But if there’s a deadline that pops up … probably AJ, on Monday, should have turned around after Fury cancelled the fight and gone, ‘We’re moving on’. But we didn’t, we stayed in it, we kept trying. And I expect Fury to come out today and say, ‘Right, time up again, I’m fighting Manuel Charr’, which will be a huge disappointment for everybody.

“They know where we are up to in the negotiations and the contracts, so they know we can’t sign today, because we’ve just had their comments [on our contract revisions] back. But they’re trying to get Fury to be reasonable, which is easier said than done.”

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