Eddie Hearn has said he and Anthony Joshua did not agree to Tyson Fury being the A-side in December’s fight between “AJ” and the “Gypsy King”.
On 11 December, Joshua and Fury will square off at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, in arguably the biggest British fight in history.
The meeting of former heavyweight champions, which will stream live on Netflix, was announced on Thursday, with Fury’s name listed first on the poster.
Speaking to iFL TV the same day, Joshua’s promoter Hearn said: “We’ve got a lot of stuff to still sort out around the fight. The preferences of who gets what.
“Obviously they’ve announced it’s Fury vs AJ. No problem, we couldn’t care less. No, no, that was never agreed.
“We’re supposed to do a press conference next week; I’m not sure whether that will happen or not to be honest with you, because there are a few things we’re still ironing out.”
One such issue to iron out is Dana White’s involvement in the fight.
The UFC chief, who launched the controversial Zuffa Boxing with Saudi official Turki Alalshikh this year, has repeatedly said he will be involved, and he featured in Thursday’s press release.
However, Hearn said later that day: “Dana White told everybody he’s promoting the show, he’s bringing the fight to America, he knows where the venue is. Obviously we know that didn’t happen. Dana White cannot be involved in this fight promotionally. Netflix clearly didn’t get the memo.
“You see, no one talks to each other. I speak to [Saudi company] Sela and Turki: ‘No, Dana White is not involved in the fight. You’ve got a contract that says that. He won’t be at the presser.’ And then Netflix say [on Thursday]: ‘Oh yes, the fight’s in conjunction with Dana White.’
“Now we have to go through that process and deal with them. It’s a little bit annoying to be honest with you, but as I’ve shown through the UK battle that we won: we stand by our contracts, and he cannot be involved in the fight.
“When I saw the press release, I just couldn’t stop p***ing myself. It was like: you really got them to include your name, you silly, soppy t**? It’s so petty to the point where... You’ve lost, mate, you’ve lost. Give it up, son.”
The “UK battle” to which Hearn referred was a location dispute, which almost saw the fight head to the US. Key figures in negotiations were pushing for New York City to host the bout at Madison Square Garden.
“They came to us and said, ‘Look, how can we...?’” Hearn said. “We started talking, ‘What if we did this? This?’ But basically, AJ just weren’t really up for it. He left substantial millions on the table to stay in the UK and do the fight.”
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