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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Donagh Corby

Eddie Hearn backs Dillian Whyte to KO Tyson Fury in world title fight

Tyson Fury will be knocked out by Dillian Whyte when they square off for the world heavyweight title, according to Eddie Hearn.

The Matchroom Boxing boss works closely with Whyte, as well as Anthony Joshua, both of whom were heavily involved in discussions around Fury's next move over this week.

A deal had been tabled for Fury to face Oleksandr Usyk in an undisputed title fight that would have had to see both Whyte and Joshua take step aside deals, but Hearn believes the Brit didn't want to take on his fellow champion.

Usyk is contractually obliged to face Joshua in a rematch this year, while Whyte is mandated to face Fury for the WBC belt.

And Hearn believes that with a purse bid imminent tomorrow, Fury's reign at the top of the heavyweight division is not going to last much longer.

"After all this kerfuffle, he'll get beat by Dillian Whyte," Hearn told iFL TV of the WBC champion after he slammed Hearn as a terrible businessman in a social media post yesterday.

Eddie Hearn and Tyson Fury are once again at odds (Ramsey Cardy / SPORTSFILE via Getty Images)

"The reality is, when it really came down to it, he never wanted to fight Oleksandr Usyk because he could have gone straight into a fight with him.

"But he didn't want to go straight into that fight and the public won't ever hear it, you'll just hear Fury on Instagram screaming and shouting with smoke and mirrors.

"Right now, there's a purse bid tomorrow, I'm very confident there'll be a bid tomorrow for Fury against Whyte, I've said every other time I didn't think it would happen."

Hearn believes that Fury wants an easier fight for his March 26 homecoming fight, as opposed to going abroad to face Usyk, who is one of the pound-for-pound best fighters in the world.

The Ukrainian was the undisputed cruiserweight champion, and within three fights in his move up to heavyweight has become the unified WBA, WBO and IBF champion.

And with considerably lesser names like Robert Helenius or Manuel Charr being floated as possible opponents for Fury's first UK fight in four years at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Hearn thinks he would rather get a tune-up fight under his belt.

Would you like to see Tyson Fury fight Oleksandr Usyk next, or Dillian Whyte? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!

"He was not willing to fight Oleksandr Usyk next for undisputed," Hearn continued. "He wanted a fight first in March against someone else.

"Now he wants to fight Dillian Whyte, he changes his mind every day, so this whole thing was just a lot of people putting pressure on us saying 'do this, do this'.

"We said we'd look at that, so we'll see what happens."

A deal for Fury to fight Usyk would likely have seen Whyte offered millions of pounds to step aside, but having to wait on two undisputed world title fights.

This is a deal which he wouldn't have taken kindly to, having been WBC mandatory challenger for a number of years before finally getting to purse bids for a fight with Fury.

There is currently an ongoing legal battle between Whyte and the governing body over the massive 80-20 purse split in favour of Fury for their bout, which will be bid on tomorrow afternoon.

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