Frank Warren has hit out at Eddie Hearn for suggesting an agreement for Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua to finally fight each other this summer was close.
Joshua returns to the ring this weekend for the first time since his rematch defeat to Oleksandr Usyk in August, and in his first fight at the O2 Arena for seven years after a long run of stadium bouts, as he takes on Jermaine Franklin.
It was hoped that Joshua and Fury would fight at the end of last year, after their very public negotiations appeared to be making progress when Joshua agreed to take a 40% split of the purse. That ultimately fell through though, with Fury instead fighting Derek Chisora for a third time.
Fury is on the hunt for a new opponent after talks for an undisputed bout with Usyk also collapsed, despite Wembley Stadium being booked for April 29 and Warren previously hinting that he was on the verge of announcing the fight.
Speaking earlier this week, Joshua’s promoter Hearn revealed his confidence that his fighter would face Fury next, assuming there was no upset in London on Saturday night.
“I have had talks this week with George Warren and fundamentally the original contract is in place,” Hearn told the Daily Mail.
“I truly believe that as long as AJ beats Franklin we will see him against Fury in the summer.
“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, Warren has hit back at the suggestion that his son and Hearn had been in talks over the fight, which Joshua has claimed Fury needs to redeem himself after the negotiations with Usyk broke down.
The promoter confirmed Fury has not been spoken to about that bout and slammed Hearn for going public with his comments and raising expectation that the fight will happen.
“It was a 30-second conversation,” Warren told talkSPORT.
“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. Really annoyed about that because that 100 per cent did not happen. ‘Contracts are gonna be signed in the next week’, it’s just absolute b*******.
”Social media’s actually killing some of the fights because of the expectation level. I don’t wanna be conducting negotiations through social media. That became part of the downfall of the fight with Usyk.”
