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Tyson Fury must reverse his retirement in the next “three or four weeks” to set up a summer showdown with Anthony Joshua, Eddie Hearn has warned.
Fury announced his retirement this week, having made the same claim several times in recent years, potentially thwarting a dream fight with Joshua.
Fury suffered a second straight loss to Oleksandr Usyk in December, following Joshua’s knockout by Daniel Dubois in September. Those results seemingly put Fury, 36, and Joshua, 35, back on track for a long-awaited fight with each other.
Yet Fury’s latest retirement, while doubted by many figures in boxing, might have derailed the all-British bout for good. At the very least, its ideal timing in summer 2025 might have been affected.
Hearn, who promotes Joshua, told the Daily Mail. “None of us know what Fury will do next, but if we are to see the fight in the summer, he would probably have to come out of retirement in the next three or four weeks.
“After that, the summer gets difficult for a fight of this size. The future? Hopefully […] I think he will be back, but it’s in his hands.”
Saudi adviser Turki Al-Sheikh, boxing’s most influential matchmaker, has said he wants Hearn and Fury’s promoter Frank Warren to collaborate on an August fight card. Such an event could take place away from Saudi Arabia, potentially in the UK.
That would seemingly be the ideal opportunity to match Joshua and Fury, though Al-Sheikh has hinted at a different opponent for “AJ” if Fury stays retired.
“I want to see Joshua and [Deontay] Wilder now,” Al-Sheikh told Talksport on Thursday (16 January). “If Tyson is not available, why not Joshua and Wilder?”
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Hearn added, in his conversation with the Mail: “For AJ, we have options to pursue, and we are looking at them currently.”
Earlier this week, Hearn told The Independent and other publications: “There are loads of fights we could take. Even when [Martin] Bakole called [Joshua] out the other day, I think that gave him a kick up the a**, because his response was: ‘Come on then, I’ll fight you.’ I’m not sure that’s the fight for us, but…
“With AJ, it’s not, ‘He will only fight if it’s a big opportunity or if the money’s there’, but I just look at Fury or the world heavyweight championship as the two real options that are going to give him the money and the challenge that he needs.
“But if he didn’t fight the winner of Dubois-Parker or Fury, he would still fight again, 100 per cent. He has absolutely no interest in retiring.”
On 22 February, Dubois defends the IBF heavyweight title against Joseph Parker, whom Joshua outpointed in 2018.
