Anthony Joshua was legally locked into drug testing the moment pen hit paper for the Tyson Fury clash. Fury walked away with no such obligation. That is an inexcusable breakdown for a fight trading on massive money and lethal heavyweight power.<\/p>\n
Eddie Hearn confirmed the protocol failed, admitting the contract he handed his own star did not match the rules governing the other side.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t adhered to in its form. I don\u2019t actually necessarily blame Tyson Fury for that. As we\u2019ve found out on many occasions, what\u2019s in AJ\u2019s contract is not necessarily in Tyson Fury\u2019s contract. Testing was supposed to start when the original contracts were signed, and it didn\u2019t for them. And I don\u2019t think [Fury] had in his contract that it had to start then. This is not me saying, \u2018He didn\u2019t enroll.\u2019 I don\u2019t think he was obligated to enroll [in his contract], but in our contract, he was,\u201d Hearn told Everything Boxing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mega-fight negotiations often rely on separate promotional agreements instead of one master contract signed by every party. Matchroom handles Joshua\u2019s paperwork while Fury\u2019s representatives negotiate his terms. That fragmented structure gives crucial provisions room to drift.<\/p>\n Drug testing cannot function properly through mismatched enrollment windows. If Joshua enters a testing pool months before Fury, while Fury joins only for an eight-week camp, the program loses much of its deterrent value. The off-season period is precisely when year-round testing carries importance.<\/p>\n The disparity also creates an unnecessary psychological imbalance. Joshua begins preparing under testing requirements while his opponent operates without the same contractual obligation. Even without evidence of wrongdoing, that arrangement gives Joshua\u2019s camp reason to question the fairness of the process.<\/p>\n Responsibility rests with the promoters and legal teams. If Matchroom allowed Joshua to sign terms that did not bind Fury equally, Hearn\u2019s side failed to secure one of the event\u2019s most basic safety protections.<\/p>\n Hearn\u2019s decision to reveal the discrepancy supplies Matchroom with negotiating leverage. He can apply public pressure for identical testing terms without directly accusing Fury of avoiding enrollment.<\/p>\n This is not evidence that Fury broke an agreement. It is evidence that the people drafting the contracts failed to create one enforceable standard for both fighters.<\/p>\n Share this article<\/p>\n About the authorBoxing News 24 Desk<\/p>\n BoxingNews24.com has delivered independent boxing coverage since 2007, including original news, fight analysis, schedules, and results. Our experienced boxing writers cover major fighters and events worldwide, with published content reviewed by editors for accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Joshua was legally locked into drug testing the moment pen hit paper for the Tyson Fury clash.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-898306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898306","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=898306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}