Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn praised Oleksandr Usyk’s team as they negotiated a fight with Anthony Joshua, but claimed he was ‘paranoid’ after the collapse of the Tyson Fury clash.
Fury and Joshua had been expected to meet this summer to settle the question over who was the undisputed heavyweight champion, but Fury was instructed by an arbitor to honour a commitment for a trilogy rematch with Deontay Wilder instead.
A Covid-19 outbreak in Fury’s camp derailed that fight, but the WBO ordered Joshua to face his mandatory, Ukrainian former cruiserweight Usyk. That needed Usyk to drop a planned bout with Joe Joyce, and while Hearn had little problem with the opposing boxer’s team, he was concerned after being burned by the Fury experience.
Asked how long he kept the Usyk confirmation secret, he told the DAZN Boxing Show: “This one, probably two or three weeks, but it was signed maybe a week ago, just just under a week or so.”
Perhaps thinking of Fury’s various representatives, Hearn pointedly praised Usyk’s manager Alexander Krassyuk.
“When you're working with people who you actually trust and have a history with? Generally, things don't go wrong,” he observed.
“So in this instance, Alexander Krassyuk, who I promoted on Usyk with for several years.
"Once we agreed to deal which was like two or three weeks ago, it was just down to the lawyers to pay for it.
“But I knew that AJ was always fine with the fight. Usyk wanted to fight really bad. So once you agree the bulk of the terms there's really nowhere to go. I knew that we were in a good spot.
“I believe Alex, and those guys trust me as well. But at the same time with the Fury fight falling through, you become very paranoid in this industry. If I was Uysk at that stage, I might be thinking, Well, hey, what's going on here? Am I gonna get [the fight] because I'm here with the Fury, AJ fight?
“AJ has now been preparing for five, six weeks. Oleksandr Uysk, however long, you know that that moment was? So he's ready to go. And it's going to be amazing to be doing in front of so many people in London. It's going to be a huge fight. You know, it's Olympic gold against the Olympic gold, unified heavyweight world champion against undisputed cruiserweight world champion.”
Hearn was under no illusion that Usyk would not be a walkover, warning Joshua: “I mean, it's a pretty big fight. And he's got to be on it.”