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As one of boxing’s foremost salesmen, Eddie Hearn, more than anyone, knows the power of promotional foreplay. He also knows how quickly a fight can go from being highly anticipated to irrelevant if this promotional foreplay is exhausted and fans get the sense there will be no payoff at the end of it all.
This, in fact, is Hearn’s great fear when it comes to a potential heavyweight fight between his man, Anthony Joshua, and Tyson Fury, Joshua’s longtime British rival. Ideally, as far as Hearn is concerned, this fight should have happened a long time ago, back when both were unbeaten or at least defined by more than just being outboxed by Oleksandr Usyk – twice – on the Ukrainian’s journey to become everything neither Joshua nor Fury were able to become; that is, the world’s number one heavyweight. That it never happened when it should have happened is as much Joshua’s fault as it is Fury’s, yet doesn’t mean it is too late to now do something about this oversight and make up for lost time.
Even the fact that Fury recently announced his retirement from the sport should act as no deterrent. Fury, after all, has become a fighter known to announce his retirement whenever he is either bored or, ironically, gearing up to negotiate for a big fight and Hearn, the man with whom Fury would have to negotiate, says there is no fight bigger, even now, than Fury vs. Joshua.
“I feel like Tyson Fury’s a bit of a tease really,” Hearn told Sky Sports. “Even today, I come out of a press conference [for a heavyweight fight between Fabio Wardley and Justis Huni] and I went on Instagram and see that he’s there with his wraps on, [saying], ‘Twelve rounds of boxing.’ Why are you doing this to us? What are you doing? Are you just deliberately playing with our minds or are you coming back? Just let us know either way. Put us out of our misery.”
Of course, given his experience in the sport, Hearn knows exactly what Fury is attempting to do by retiring and then unretiring. He knows his desire for attention is second only to his desire to make money and he knows therefore that Fury cannot stay away from boxing for long. It is for this reason Hearn remains hopeful of making the one fight he really wants to make and why Joshua, currently injured, is just as hopeful of finally meeting Fury later in the year.
“AJ has got to have a little keyhole surgery on an elbow and he will be back post September,” confirmed Hearn. “It’s there, isn’t it? Let’s just make it happen. When we talk about big fights, this fight is the biggest fight not just in British boxing but in world boxing – by a mile. I just feel like it’s time. This is the moment. We are reliant upon Tyson Fury and I just know in his mind he will want to dance with Anthony Joshua. So dust those shoes off and let’s make it happen.”
Until they both summon the courage to get up and actually dance, expect many more months of Fury and Joshua continuing to make eyes at each other across the dance floor. One only hopes that they make their move before the music stops and everybody else in the room has gone home.