By: Sean Crose
WBC and undisputed heavyweight champion of the world Tyson Fury has made it clear he’s willing to fight former WBA, IBF, and WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua before this year is out. Anthony Joshua has responded in kind, saying he’ll be “ready in December.” On Tuesday, Fury took things a step further, offering a 60/40 split of the revenue with his fellow Englishman, should they meet in the ring. And now Joshua promoter Eddie Hearn has weighed in indicating to iFL TV that Fury’s offer may indeed be legitimate, and that Joshua himself approves of it.
“I took it with a complete pinch of salt,” Hearn said of his initial reaction to Fury’s calling out of Joshua. Still, being Joshua’s promoter, Hearn turned to Joshua and his team, all of whom indicated Joshua would be ready to go, should Fury’s offer be legitimate. Now, Hearn claims, both sides have moved on to the next step. “The conversations have been quite productive,” he told iFl TV. “Sixty-forty was the offer, as Tyson said. They want a rematch clause and they asked for a date at the beginning of November.” Although November wasn’t acceptable to team Joshua, both Joshua and Hearn would be fine with the fight occurring a few weeks later.
“We think, I think particularly, he (Joshua) deserves more than forty percent,” Hearn said, “but he’s happy and I don’t make the decisions, he does. So I went back this morning and said we accept 60/40. We want that reversed in a rematch, rightfully so…and we want to do the fight in December. And interestingly,” Hearn added, “they have December 17th Queensbury held at Millennium Stadium so that’s perfect, that’s perfect for us.” Bottom line from Hearn? “All I can tell you at the moment is we accept 60/40.”
Hearn made it clear, however, that even though the 60/40 split proposed by Fury was acceptable, there were other things, such as broadcast rights matters, to be dealt with. He also didn’t appear in the video to be entirely certain that Fury and his team were indeed, serious. Still, as he said: “The conversations have been quite productive.” Should the fight indeed come to fruition it would be a major event, especially in Great Britain, where both men hail from. Although Fury would most likely be the favorite at this point, Joshua is nothing if not powerful and determined.