Anthony Joshua has accepted Tyson Fury's offer for a heavyweight showdown - but won't fight on the proposed date of November 12.
Fury turned his attention to Joshua after Oleksandr Usyk ruled himself out of an undisputed fight before the end of the year. Fury insisted he wanted to return to the ring before Christmas and offered his fellow Brit a shot at redemption following his back-to-back defeats by Usyk.
Fury offered his bitter rival 40 per cent of a multi-million-pound purse while insisting the fight would take place in the UK in November. He also claimed he was happy for the fight to be shown on both BT Sport Box Office and DAZN after Joshua signed a deal with the streaming service.
And Hearn has revealed he has accepted the offer on Joshua's behalf, but said his charge won't be ready until December 17, a date which the promoter claims has been reserved by Fury's promoter Frank Warren at Cardiff's Principality Stadium. Fury's preference is to fight on November 12, a fight he claims would take place at Manchester United's Old Trafford. Failing that, Fury has claimed Warren has booked Wembley for November 26 and the Principality Stadium on December 3.
Fury had been expected to offer Joshua a much smaller slice of the pie but took to social media to clarify what he felt was a fair offer. "I'm being bombarded with messages about how much I'm going to pay AJ," he said. "Everyone is saying 80/20, 70/30, 75/25... the actual answer is I've offered him 60/40.
"Forty per cent of this amazing fight because I want this fight to happen. He doesn't have have any excuses now not to take it. He can't say I've lowballed him by offering him 20 per cent or 30 per cent. I've offered him 40 per cent, take it or leave it. Let us know."
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Fury and Joshua were due to meet last summer for the undisputed title but a judge instead ruled Fury had to fight Deontay Wilder for a third time. At that stage, the purse, worth up to £100million each after a bid from Saudi Arabia, was to be split down the middle. But since then, Joshua has lost twice to Usyk while Fury has made successful defences of his world title against first Wilder and then Dillian Whyte.
Fury and Usyk had been expected to clash for the undisputed crown the week before Christmas but the Ukrainian admitted he won't be ready until next spring, leaving Fury to search for a new opponent having confirmed he was coming out of his short-lived and barely-believable retirement.
