Eddie Hearn delivers verdict on Anthony Joshua sparring Tyson Fury for Deontay Wilder bout

Eddie Hearn says he wouldn’t be shocked if Anthony Joshua were to make good on his offer to spar with Tyson Fury in America before his rematch with Deontay Wilder. Joshua offered to help his fellow Brit prepare for his showdown with WBC champion Wilder, which is expected to take place in Las Vegas on February 22 but has yet to be officially confirmed.

Fury very quickly accepted the offer, declaring: “I’d love to have you in camp, mush. Really, really love to have you in camp workout for this fight and give Deontay Wilder a proper beating. I’d love to, I hope you mean it because I’ve love to have you in training camp with me.”

The ‘Gypsy King’ is to begin his pre-fight camp imminently as he looks to be the first man to beat Wilder, who has won 42 of his 43 fights, only failing to win in a controversial split draw against Fury in December 2018.

“It’s going to be interesting with AJ’s schedule,” Hearn told iFL TV on the possibility of Joshua flying out to the United States.

“When I saw that I thought, ‘how’re you going to do that?!’ I wouldn’t be surprised. 

“Now he’s said it, I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up flying out there and doing some rounds. It’s a weird one.”

Joshua explained that he would rather Fury beat Wilder because he believes an undisputed heavyweight showdown would be easier to set up with his compatriot than with Wilder.

And Hearn explained: “He hopes Fury wins because he knows Fury will fight him. The whole problem before is, that they all wanted 50-50. Neither of them [Wilder or Fury] deserved it. 

“Do they deserve it now? There’s a good argument. AJ has lost – but he has come back, he’s still a huge star. But we all need each other and we acknowledge that now. 

“At the time Wilder was earning peanuts. You can’t go from earning £3-4m to £40m when a guy is making 10 times as much as you.

“Now he’s got a decent deal because DAZN helped him get that. Is it 50-50? That’s for AJ to decide. 

“Certainly the argument now is a lot stronger than it was a year ago.

“Ultimately we get to a stage where AJ just wants the fight, if he thinks it’s not worth 50-50, he’ll probably suffer it because he just wants the fight now. 

“Through the Ruiz loss it wised up him to say you can’t take this sport for granted, especially in the division. He’s learned so much from that defeat and realised it’s not always plain sailing.

“It’s a risky sport, one punch can change everything.”

Speaking himself on offering to spar Fury, Joshua appeared to suggest he regretted making such comments – but doubled down on insisting that it would be beneficial for him as much as it would for Fury.

“You know when I look back at some of the s**t I say I think, “why did I say that?!” the three-belt champion told iFL TV.

“So now we’re going to talk about it and give more publicised things to talk about! ‘You know what it is, Fury is a world-class fighter and I’m a world-class fighter that is still trying to improve so I can become like an elite-level fighter when I’m fighting.

“Sparring Fury is only going to do me good, in my opinion. So, I’m never too big for my boots where I can’t learn anymore,” Joshua said to iFL TV.

“Fury is a world-class fighter and I’m a world-class fighter that is still trying to improve so I can become like an elite-level fighter when I’m fighting.”

“So, that opportunity, for me to spar Fury, is for my own benefit as well.”

But Fury’s promoter Frank Warren insists a sparring session between the two Brits will never come to fruition.

He said to the Metro: “That’s all nonsense. Joshua is already backing out of the offer.

“He’s said he can’t believe he said it and we’ve all had those moments. Who cares about them sparring each other? We want to see them fight.

“This sparring session will never happen. What’s the point of it? It’s about them in the ring together being watched by paying punters, not in the gym.

“First of all, a sparring session between Joshua and Fury would not be a spar. It would be all guns blazing, chaos.

“They wouldn’t be taking it easy and they’d only be trying to outdo each other. Stupid, completely pointless.”

source: express.co.uk