Eddie Hearn says it makes sense for Tyson Fury to come to the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight title fight between champion Anthony Joshua and mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev on Saturday Dec. 12, and went as far as to invite the WBC titleholder to his house the following Sunday for a roast dinner.
Joshua has waited all year to make this fight happen, as has Pulev. The COVID-19 pandemic preventing it from taking place for a long time until promoter Hearn finally bit the bullet on a live gate and secured the mid-December date as part of Matchroom Boxing's residency at the SSE Arena, Wembley.
In a piece of good news after the fact, London was moved into "Tier 2" of British pandemic protocol from Dec. 2, leading to 1,000 tickets going on sale on Friday morning and being reported by official vendor StubHub as sold out before lunchtime.
Despite space at the socially distanced COVID "bubble" being precious, Hearn told Sky Sports he would make sure there was a spot for Fury, who is expected to battle Joshua in an all-British superfight in 2021 if the champion gets past the Bulgarian.
"I think that he should be coming," Hearn said before explaining: "If he wants to fight Anthony Joshua, it's not a case of calling him out, it's called doing his research and building the fight.
"Tyson Fury is more than welcome to come down. I only live 45 minutes away from Wembley. He can come around on Sunday afternoon for a roast as well, if he wants and a cuppa.
"We just want to get that fight made. But first things first, we've seen it before at Madison Square Garden with Andy Ruiz when we were talking about the Wilder fight.
"This is it. This is the last hurdle — Kubrat Pulev, December 12."
If Fury were to attend, a Joshua win could lead to the big face-to-face confrontation the boxing world has been waiting for.
AJ and Fury, along with their management teams, could then sit down and finalise the details on what they agreed to in principle earlier in 2020, which initially was the financial set-up for a two-fight deal.
With both world champions being British, one of the two fights would be likely to take place on U.K. soil, though Bob Arum has suggested that several other territories have expressed an interest in bringing such a big clash — one that could unify the heavyweight division if the WBO choose not to strip Joshua for fighting Fury over Oleksandr Usyk — overseas, just like Joshua's title-regaining rematch with Ruiz being staged in Saudi Arabia.