{"id":649261,"date":"2026-05-04T15:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/649261\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T15:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:29:09","slug":"eddie-hearn-looks-forward-to-anthony-joshua-vs-tyson-fury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/649261\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn looks forward to Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury"},"content":{"rendered":"

With official word coming from all sides that a heavyweight clash between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury has been signed for later this year<\/a>, Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn talks about finally getting the fight over the line, why it\u2019ll be a massive success even despite naysayers saying it\u2019s come too late, and more. Check out some excerpts of what he had to say below.<\/p>\n

Hearn on Joshua vs Fury being set for later this year<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always convinced we\u2019d get there. I can\u2019t tell you I thought we\u2019d take this long. But just really pleased. I mean, obviously we have to take care of business in July, which we expect to do, and you\u2019re just going to see the biggest fight in boxing. It still makes me laugh people say \u2018well, I\u2019m just not that interested in it\u2019 \u2014 it\u2019s like, shut up! It is going to be huge. It is going to stop the country, it\u2019s going to stop the boxing and sporting world by the time this comes around.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, again, \u2018I\u2019m not interested in it anymore\u2019 \u2014 shut up. Trust me, you\u2019ll be interested in this. Both guys will be firing for this and it\u2019ll be a megafight and it\u2019s a delight to get it over the line. Can\u2019t wait.<\/p>\n

\u201cAJ\u2019s in a great place. He\u2019s really excited, he\u2019s training hard. He\u2019s got a real clear schedule now, from now \u2018til end of the year and I think it\u2019s a good road map to push into 2027 and try to fight for a world heavyweight championship, because that\u2019s what he wants.\u201d<\/p>\n

On who chose Kristian Prenga as AJ\u2019s next opponent<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one really wanted [AJ] to fight a 50\/50 fight for many reasons. Number one, because he\u2019s coming back from injury and that incident. And two, I don\u2019t think Turki Alalshikh really wanted him to be in that kind of fight given what\u2019s at stake for the Tyson Fury fight. So we wanted someone who\u2019s game, who would cause a little bit of a threat. I don\u2019t think Pregna\u2019s an elite heavyweight but he\u2019s a decent heavyweight, got a massive knockout percentage record, he\u2019ll be coming to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we got to do a job on him. And if you don\u2019t do a job on someone like Prenga, you\u2019re not going to be beating Tyson Fury. And that\u2019s the aim, to go out there and do a job on Pregna and get the momentum to go back into another camp to beat Tyson Fury.\u201d<\/p>\n

On if he knows where AJ vs Fury will take place for certain<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. We kind of left our meetings with the understanding that Wembley would be the place. And Wembley should be the place. But also, availability is not always perfect. But that\u2019s down to the man paying the bills, and that\u2019s Turki Alalshikh for this one. So we signed up for a contract which basically says \u2018it is where it is.\u2019 But I know Turki will want to bring this fight to the UK because it\u2019s that historic, and obviously he\u2019ll be tremendously thanked for that, and hopefully that\u2019s where it will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

On how much bigger AJ vs Fury is compared to other British events like Eubank Jr vs Benn and Froch vs Groves<\/p>\n

\u201c10x bigger. By a mile. Tell me a bigger fight in UK history than Fury vs AJ? You\u2019re talking about two generational \u2014 arguably #1 and #2 in terms of biggest names in the sport, certainly the biggest names in British boxing and have been for years and years. It is absolutely monstrous. Everybody in the country knows who AJ and Fury are, every kid, every grandma, every auntie, every uncle. It\u2019s just a massive, massive event.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With official word coming from all sides that a heavyweight clash between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,1920,85],"class_list":["post-649261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}