Interview: Joshua and Fury’s British super-fight is veering towards New York City, but ‘AJ’ and Hearn are still endorsing a domestic venue
Alex Pattle Combat Sports Editor
Eddie Hearn has suggested he and Anthony Joshua are essentially preventing the heavyweight’s fight with Tyson Fury from being announced as taking place in the US.
British stars Joshua and Fury are contracted to square off in a long-awaited showdown later this year, which would arguably be the biggest domestic fight of all time.
It had been mooted that Joshua, 36, vs Fury, 37, could take place at London’s Wembley Stadium, although Saudi matchmaker Turki Alalshikh claimed that ring walks would have to begin at 2am GMT. The US has since emerged as the frontrunner, with New York City’s Madison Square Garden putting in an offer, as Hearn – who promotes Joshua – said last week.
He then spoke to The Independent on Thursday, just hours after Fury’s promoter Frank Warren did the same.
arren insisted the fight will take place in November, but of the location, he said: “I can’t comment on that at the moment, because it’s not for me to do it.”
Hearn then exclusively told The Independent: “Well, I can and I will.
“Everybody involved in the fight – not the fans, certainly not – wants the fight to take place at Madison Square Garden, apart from Anthony Joshua and Eddie Hearn, who have a clear contract that says the fight must take place in the UK.
“Now, at the same time, I also understand that these guys are our partners, and the fight’s got to work for everybody, but Anthony Joshua’s position at the moment is: ‘Why?’
“We wouldn’t have signed the contract that we signed if this fight was in America. And people just presume, ‘They’re gonna get paid more to go there;’ we don’t want the money, we’d rather it was in the UK.
“When the amount of people involved and the people paying the bills want it to be in Madison Square Garden, it’s very difficult to stop that from happening, if they want… but they have to renegotiate the contract. I’ve said this [to them] so many times.
“So, at the moment, we’re chilled. Now, everybody’s frantically running around, because they want to get the fight announced, but the only way they can announce the fight at the moment is if it’s in the UK – and they don’t want to do it in the UK.”
Hearn, who runs Matchroom Boxing, also opened up on his latest dealings with TKO, the co-owners of the controversial new Zuffa Boxing promotion. Zuffa Boxing is run by Alalshikh and UFC president Dana White.
Hearn said: “Last night I had a call from TKO and [board member] Nick Khan, asking if Dana White could be involved. And I’m like: ‘No, what the f***?’
“That’s like Turki Alalshikh doing the biggest event in UFC, with Conor McGregor or whatever, and saying to Dana White: ‘Oh, by the way, Eddie Hearn’s got to promote it.’
“Do you honestly think that they’d let me in to do that? Do you think I’m gonna give them a leg-up like that? No chance.”
Former world champions Joshua and Fury were both in action in July, with Fury stopping a 46-year-old Mariusz Wach in seven rounds, one day before “AJ” climbed off the canvas twice in the first round to stop Kristian Prenga in round two.
Those bouts were billed as the final warm-ups before Joshua vs Fury, which has been discussed for the best part of 10 years. It was even signed in 2021, only for Deontay Wilder to threaten legal action and force a trilogy fight with Fury.
At the time, Joshua and Fury held all the major heavyweight titles between them, but after Fury stopped Wilder for the second time to keep the WBC belt, AJ was outpointed by Oleksandr Usyk to lose the unified straps.
Joshua had already lost his unbeaten record, and he was defeated by Usyk on points again in 2022. Fury then suffered the same fate in 2024, when he was twice outpointed by Usyk in world-title fights.
