ANTHONY JOSHUA against Tyson Fury will be signed, sealed and delivered by the end of next week, according to promoter Eddie Hearn. As reported by Boxing News, the Matchroom boss has this week crossed continents to hold a total of six different meetings with potential venues about staging the Joshua-Fury between Britain’s two heavyweight icons.
Now Hearn insists his world tour has paid off as he expects an agreement on the venue to be finalised in a matter of days.
Joshua, the IBF, WBA and WBO champion, and WBC boss Fury put pen to paper on a contract for the first ever four-belt heavyweight unification last month. The terms stipulated that all parties then had 28 days to agree all the other points of the deal.
“We always had a time frame in place in the agreement that everybody signed,” said Hearn on Friday.
“That can be extended but it’s not the intention to extend it and we are all working to that time frame. Really I think end of next week it will be done.
“They are going to be presented with a few proposals on where to do the fight and everyone has to agree on where to do it. There is no other fight out there that comes close for either guy. July is the date.
“We can’t wait. AJ has started his training camp and Fury has been training very hard. They all want the fight.”
On the deal itself, Hearn said: “Talks have progressed extremely well and we’re closing in on securing the venue and there will be an announcement in due course. We’re at the stage where it’s probably best not to say much more than that.”
Saudi Arabia had appeared to be the frontrunner to play host to the historic showdown although places like Qatar, Dubai and America had also been part of the discussion.
And, despite the ongoing lockdown in Britain, Hearn had even opened the door to the possibility of Wembley Stadium securing the clash, if they could guarantee a capacity of 100,000.
But the national stadium will play host to the European Championship semi-finals (July 6th and 7th) and also the final on July 11th and Hearn says their priority is getting the venue ready for that – and not AJ-Fury.
Hearn added: “Wembley is not out of the running but having spoken to them they have to be in a situation where they need full capacity and their first job is trying to get that for the Euros.
“If we can be guaranteed that it may enter some discussion but I don’t think so.”
In other heavyweight news, Hearn confirmed that Dereck Chisora’s pay-per-view clash with Joseph Parker will take place in Manchester. Most of Matchroom’s bubbles have taken place at Wembley Arena but his May 1 card, which also includes Katie Taylor against Natasha Jonas, Dmitry Bivol against Craig Richards and Chris Eubank against Marcus Morrison, is heading north.