Eddie Hearn takes thinly-veiled dig at Tyson Fury as undisputed fight with Usyk at risk of collapse
EDDIE HEARN has seemingly taken a thinly-veiled shot at Tyson Fury over his failure to finalise a showdown with Oleksandr Usyk.
The first undisputed heavyweight title fight in nearly 25 years is in major doubt over an ongoing purse row, with Fury initially refusing to accept a 50-50 split.
Usyk and his team have since proposed a 60-40 split of the whopping pie for the winner but Fury has also rejected that offer.
The prospect of the biggest heavyweight fight since Lennox Lewis’ rematch with Evander Holyfield falling through has irked boxing fans, Hearn included.
In an Instagram post hailing the imminent return of Anthony Joshua, he wrote: “Fought Usyk back to back no problems, no questions asked.
“Never ducked a challenge his whole career.
“Cannot f***ing wait to see him back April 1st! “
Boxing fans were quick to comment, with one saying: “Fury is ridiculously ducking Usyk he’s making it obvious too.”
Another said: “Fury bottled it against AJ.”
And another said: “Tyson ducked AJ.”
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One remarked: “He [Joshua] might get a trilogy fight with Usyk before Fury fights him at this rate!”
Usyk’s promoter Alexander Krassuyk has lamented the delay in finalising the fight but remains “optimistic” it will come to fruition.
He told talkSPORT: “I am experienced and I’ve been here for a while.
“Normally when a fighter does not want to take a fight, he asks for something impossible so it doesn’t take place.
“On the other side, I’m really optimistic.
Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk – Date, live stream, TV channel and all you need to know about heavyweight bout
“Maybe Tyson is not ready yet.
“Maybe he’s is not ready mentally, maybe he’s not ready physically, whatever, I don’t know and we don’t really care.
“We want to make it happen.
“If he doesn’t want it, we can’t make him want it.
“So what can I say? The fight should happen someday.”