Eddie Hearn: 'There have been breaches in Anthony Joshua's contract for Tyson Fury fight'
Eddie Hearn has accused TKO of leaking emails in order to push a narrative regarding Matchroom’s demands for Anthony Joshua-Tyson Fury to take place in the US.
Talks of staging a long-overdue contest between Joshua and Fury appeared to hit a standstill after it was revealed that the event’s chief financier, Turki Alalshikh, was looking to take the fight stateside.
However, in Joshua’s contract it stipulates that the contest must take place in the UK.
Boxing Scene’s Lance Pugmire reported on Thursday the details of an addendum sent to Saudi Arabia’s event management/entertainment company Sela by Matchroom – Joshua’s promoter – with their demands to accept the fight taking place in New York’s Madison Square Garden.
The report detailed standard contractual inclusions addressing ticket requests, security, and transportation assurances, and also that Joshua collects his remaining purse from his second-round knockout of Kristian Prenga on July 25 in Saudi Arabia.
The report also included a string of bouts that Matchroom suggested take place on the undercard.
Also mentioned were requests that were not part of the addendum. These were that all monies payable to Matchroom across all future darts and snooker events be paid immediately, international promotional fees plus deposits for World Series of Darts and 167 Riyadh Season events, confirmation that the Ronnie O’Sullivan Academy snooker license be renewed for a third year, and that all other funds owed to Matchroom for prior boxing events be paid immediately. Hearn insists these were nothing to do with Joshua-Fury negotiations.
Regardless, Hearn is adamant they still hope to bring the fight to London’s Wembley Stadium.
“The reality is no one's really acknowledging that we've signed the contract,” said Hearn. “People say, ‘Oh, the fight could fall through.’ It can't fall through. It can't, unless Sela and Saudi want to breach the contract and not stage a fight they've signed to stage, which wouldn't happen either. ‘Anthony Joshua wants to walk away from the fight.’ We can't walk away from the fight. We've signed a contract. So we're in. All we need is Turki Alalshikh or Netflix to call us and say, Wembley Stadium or wherever in the UK, this is the date. We'll have the press conference this week. It's done.”
Reports have also suggested that Hearn is requesting Joshua be paid more if the bout takes place in the US to make up for the extra tax he will incur.
“What they want to do is they want to pay Anthony Joshua less money, because that's how it will work out with the difference in location,” explained Hearn. “They want him to do a load of additional stuff. And I'm not going to blow things up, which I could do so easily, but there has been breaches in Joshua's contract already, which we've let slide because these guys are our partners, and our friends, or were. But there's a game being played at the moment where some of you guys are being fed emails and information to try and dress things up to spin a narrative that's just not true. And I'll address that now.
“Lance Pugmire phones me up, and I had a number of other calls as well. ‘Oh, this email has just landed on my desk from you.’ Firstly, that's a plant, and it was sent by TKO to journalists to basically try and… I actually was told by a number of people that they're actually financially incentivising people to repost Tyson Fury's story of him trying to spin a narrative. It's absolutely wild what's going on.
“The email that was sent was an email between Matchroom and Sela detailing outstanding points that we want resolved,” he continued. “The addendum that was sent to Sela regarding the changes that we want to the contract if you want to do the fight in the US did not have one of those things from that leaked email in. So it's just a mental game. And I can't believe these people are actually going to these lengths. It's unbelievably flattering that people in their position, with their power, want to do things like that. But it's a dirty, dirty game.
“And I'm just shocked at the way it's playing out because we don't breach contracts. We never have. When we sign up to something, when we agree to something. When we shake hands on something, it's done. So, yeah, it's disappointing. Now, we get a lot less money if we take the fight in America compared to the UK. Is that fair, having signed a contract?”
The reports detailing missed payments from Saudi Arabia to Matchroom and Hearn’s subsequent comments would lead one to believe there could be a rift growing between the two parties.
“Well, the only reason that came out is because it was leaked by their partners [TKO]. I didn't go to them,” Hearn said. “I think someone from a certain team phoned me and goes, ‘Oh, did you leak that email?’ I was like, ‘Are you mad? What, leaking an email about a Ronnie O'Sullivan snooker academy to try and make myself look bad? Yeah, yeah, definitely.’
“What they tried to do was take an email that wasn't even in the context of an addendum and pretend that these were all the things that we were asking for in the addendum. Luckily enough, I had the addendum and none of it was in there. So I had the opportunity to go back to these journalists and Lance Pugmire and others and say, ‘100 per cent we are not asking for those things.’
“I don't want to be talking about missed payments and what we've been promised and what we have. I don't want to air laundry like that. But that was done by them, which was even more mental. Not by the Sela, but by their partners. So, crazy. Desperation.”
The proposed date of November 20 at New York’s Madison Square Garden is quickly approaching and Hearn admitted time is running out for that date.
“We've sent them our thoughts on changes we would want if the fight was to take place in America,” he said. “We've said we don't want you to make those changes, but it's been a couple of days now. We haven't heard back. We've been told we're going to receive some comments on that. But don't forget, Netflix is spending a lot of money. They want a big build-up. They want all these press conferences and stuff like that. And we have to get in camp. So at the moment, this week is probably the deadline for the proposed date.”
When pressed on a deadline for the fight to happen in New York, Hearn responded: “I can't tell you that, because that's not my show, but yeah, I think we're running out of time.”
Despite all parties bar Matchroom seemingly keen on staging the contest in New York, Hearn remains hopeful that everyone will see sense and stage the fight in the UK.
“All this stuff over the last couple of weeks has only, not intentionally, but it's only grown the demand and the size of this fight,” he said. “If Turki Alalshikh and Netflix come back now and say the fight's happening at Wembley, November 21st, imagine, the country would go nuts. Netflix should be looking at that saying, ‘Yeah, you know what, this story's quite incredible. Imagine what Britain would do if they now landed that fight.’
“100,000 people at a national stadium. Listen, if it's in New York, we'll all go. I'm sure it'll be great, we'll be looking around, but let's be honest, everybody in this room, standing in Wembley Stadium with 100,000 Brits, looking around as Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua ring walk. I mean, I could fornicating retire on the spot. You know what I mean? And I know that I'm going to go to New York, and listen, we'll do our job and all that kind of stuff. It's just not going to be the same. And that's why we're fighting so hard.”
Hearn also admitted he would not budge on Dana White or TKO being involved as promoters of the event. However, he admitted he would not be able to stop White standing on stage if Fury signs with Zuffa Boxing or an advisory role with the UFC head.
“That's not getting changed. The promoter of the fight is Turki Alalshikh,” Hearn said. “Tyson Fury said something interesting. See, Fury's always up to games, ‘Dana, come on my team. Be my manager. Be my advisor.’ So, yeah, if Tyson Fury signs with Dana White, I probably can't do a lot about him being on Tyson Fury's team. But what he can't be is what he said he was, which is the promoter of the event. Now all of a sudden he's backtracking, saying he spoke to the venue and he checked their availability and he did the deal. So he's a venue booker now. But what he's not is the promoter of the event.
“I think the person who has really kiboshed this event is Dana because of his attitude.”