Frank Warren, co-promoter of WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, has rejected reports that his company was recently negotiating a British mega-bout with Anthony Joshua.
Joshua is back on Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London, when he faces Jermaine Franklin.
Warren was recently trying to finalize a fight between Fury and WBO, IBF, WBA, IBO champion Oleskandr Usyk – but the negotiations fell apart after both sides were unable to agree on the monetary terms for the rematch.
A few days ago, Hearn explained that he was already in talks for a potential Fury-Joshua fight.
“I truly believe that as long as AJ beats Franklin we will see him against Fury in the summer,” Hearn told Daily Mail. “Everyone accepts that AJ is a bigger draw for the UK fans than Oleksandr.
“I have had talks this week with George Warren (Frank Warren’s son) and fundamentally the original contract is in place. And we all know that the timing is perfect now, as it happens because of the circumstances with Usyk. And that this is the very last chance for this huge fight to happen. I expect to be exchanging pilot contracts with Queensberry soon. Maybe as early as next week. AJ knows there’s a big opportunity. At last. So much at stake now. But he also has his total focus on Franklin.”
However, Frank Warren has a much different recollection of what took place.
“It was a 30-second conversation. That thing that was in the Mail yesterday, George rang Hearn and said, ‘What’s this all about?’ He said he was unaware of it. I’m just telling you what he said. George said it was less than a 30-second conversation and we’ve not even discussed it with Tyson,” Warren told Talk Sport.
“Really annoyed about that because that 100 percent did not happen. ‘Contracts are gonna be signed in the next week,’ it’s just absolute b-llocks. This is what starts all that stuff going, social media’s actually killing some of the fights because of the expectation level. I don’t want to be conducting negotiations through social media. That became part of the downfall of the fight with Usyk.”