MANCHESTER, England – Tyson Fury kept us all on our toes when at first he said on Wednesday that he was happily retired and could only maybe be tempted out of retirement for a third fight with Oleksandr Usyk.
A few hours later, however, that all changed.
Fury revealed that he is seriously considering offers to return, naming Anthony Joshua and Usyk as two potential opponents. He then also claimed this morning that a return was confirmed for April 18 next year at Wembley Stadium against Usyk.
BoxingScene later discovered that there have been no talks and that the venue is not available.
Eddie Hearn, the longtime promoter of Anthony Joshua, was asked for his take on the whole situation.
“I mean, you never know. You never know what he's thinking or what he's really going to do,” Hearn told BoxingScene. “I think it's pretty obvious that he was always going to come back, but he was never going to come out and say, ‘Yeah, I want to fight Anthony Joshua’. He's got to do something.
“But I think the good thing about him talking about the Usyk [trilogy] is you can see the reaction online. And with all due respect, no one's really interested, all they want is the AJ fight. So we're just going to do our thing. He'll do his thing. And we'll see where we get to.”
Hearn was then asked if there had been any discussions for Fury to face Joshua. The longtime head of Matchroom Boxing revealed that he recently had a phone call with Riyadh Season boss Turki Alalshikh discussing the fight.
“Yeah, I spoke to him [Wednesday] night,” Hearn said. “They want them both to have, say, a comeback fight, a fight. And then, in my opinion, Turki [Alalshikh]'s going to move straight forward and make AJ-Fury.”
