There are few fight fans out there who still have hope of Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua being made, but Barry Hearn is one of them.
The pair came close to agreeing a December 3 bout earlier this year, but negotiations quickly collapsed and Fury instead chose to fight Derek Chisora for a third time and once again ‘The Gypsy King’ came out on top.
Since then, Fury has made himself quite clear in saying that Joshua has missed the boat and that he is no longer interested in the fight.
With that being said, Barry Hearn, the head of Matchroom sport and the dad of Eddie Hearn who promotes Joshua, believes the fight will happen next year.
And he also expressed the unpopular opinion that Oleksandr Usyk is the number one heavyweight in the world, over Fury.
“Anthony is in the States at the moment trying out some new trainers and getting his head right. He wants to be active in 2023,” Hearn told Sky Sports.
“I think Dillian [Whyte] is on the list. There’s a few other names – Deontay Wilder might be there, Otto Wallin. It’s his call.
“He is at a crossroads in his career. He can’t afford another loss.
“We’re going to see a very interesting 2023 across the whole heavyweight division. Joe Joyce is up there, ‘The Juggernaut’ is a handful. Daniel Dubois is coming back.
“Obviously Tyson Fury is the No. 1 in the world. He’s going to take all the beating, but I think he is quite close to getting the Usyk fight signed off. That’s a hell of a good fight, and a dangerous one.
“I think Usyk is the No. 1 heavyweight in the world. Tyson will disagree with me. Let’s go and see.
“The fight we all want to see eventually is AJ against Fury. You’ll get stories, Tyson will say the fight is never going to happen, Joshua will say he’d rather fight Dillian White. Forget all of that.
“This fight has to happen, and I think it does happen at the tail-end of 2023, for all the marbles.”
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