Eight days ago, Tyson Fury agreed to face Anthony Joshua on Aug. 14 in Saudi Arabia for the undisputed heavyweight championship. The boxing world went into a frenzy.
The excitement lasted one day as an arbitration judge ruled that Fury had to face Deontay Wilder in a trilogy fight. In an instant, out went the Joshua fight as on Saturday during the Josh Taylor-Jose Ramirez fight, Fury signed the contract to face Wilder.
Many were upset at Fury and his team, namely co-promoter Bob Arum, because Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn had been assured by the legendary promoter that the arbitration ruling wouldn't affect the fight. After taking some time to think about what happened last week, Hearn feels that some didn't want Joshua and Fury to occur.
"There was a lot of anger from everybody last week," Hearn told IFL TV. "Me, AJ.... just that these people, I can't believe these people.
"[Joshua] felt all along that they didn't want the fight. I felt differently. I didn't feel it about their team - but I felt that Fury wanted the fight. Maybe he didn't. Certain people didn't want this fight, and they've got their way for now."
A step-aside fee to get Wilder to allow Joshua-Fury to happen never entered the mind of Arum and the Englishman. Because of that, Joshua thinks ultimately, no one on Fury's side wanted the fight to occur.
"AJ feels that the entire team never wanted the fight, and they used his name for clout," Hearn added.