EDDIE HEARN hit back at an angry boxing fan after being blamed for the collapse of Anthony Joshua’s clash with Tyson Fury.
A shock December dust-up between the long-time rivals was on the cards when WBC heavyweight champ Oleksandr Usyk.
A deal for the biggest bout in the history of British Fury publicly blaming Hearn and Joshua for the fight falling through.
One boxing fan echoed that sentiment as Hearn discussed the bout during a recent speaking engagement in Dubai, shouting: “You pulled him out.”
The Matchroom Boxing chief replied: âOh leave off, I knew we were going to get blamed.”
Hearn then blamed the nixing of the biggest fight in British boxing history on Fury’s self-imposed contract deadline.
He said: “Basically what happened is Anthony Joshua lost to Oleksandr Usyk. We all saw that mentally that was a very tough defeat for him.
“Tyson Fury does what Tyson Fury does and came out on Instagram and stuck the bait out for AJ and called him out.
“And AJ told him, ‘I want the fight.’ Should he have accepted the fight? Maybe not at that moment.
“But ultimately, he’s the boss and he wanted to fight Tyson Fury. We started negotiations with Queensberry, which actually went quite well.
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“But as things are going well, all of a sudden, Tyson Fury pops up on Instagram and says we;ve got to sign the contract by the end of the day.
“He’s a bit backwards and forwards at the moment.
“And I think people over the last couple of weeks have just seen, maybe, a different side to him.”
Hearn reckons Fury has done a masterful job at keeping the public on his side, saying: “He’s very clever, Tyson Fury.
“I mean this is the guy who when he fought Deontay Wilder said he’s going to give his entire purse to the homeless.
“And I still get people coming up to me today saying, ‘I love Tyson Fury because he gave all his money to the homeless.’”
An audience member replied by asking Hearn: “Did he not?”
And Hearn didn’t mince his words when responding to the question, replying: “Did he f**k?”
The collapse of Fury vs Joshua paved the way for the WBC king to take part in a December trilogy fight with Derek Chisora.
Former unified heavyweight king Joshua, meanwhile, won’t return to the ring until early next year.
He told DAZN: “Do you know what it is, yeah? I ain’t champion and it’s just hurting a lot.
“So I’m in the gym rebuilding and restructuring everything I have to do inside and outside of the ring.
“There is a lot that goes on outside the ring in my life which makes my ring life complicated.
“So I just need to simplify a lot of stuff outside the ring and then I can put my full attention in the ring. And once I’ve got that done, next year I’ll be ready.”
