Fury ‘doesn't really want to fight Joshua’, promoter suggests, as he says site deal offers will be made this weekend

Eddie Hearn has claimed that Tyson Fury and his camp are making excuses not to face his fighter Anthony Joshua, as time runs out to find a venue for their heavyweight championship clash.

Fury took to social media to voice his concerns over there being only three days left to finalize a location for the first of two agreed unification bouts. 

His father John Fury also criticized promoters Hearn and Frank Warren, alongside Top Rank's Bob Arum, and poured doubt on the biggest British boxing clash in history receiving the required financial backing. 

“All I can hear is ducks farting left, right, and center. The lot of them — Bob Arum, Frank Warren, Eddie Hearn, the full lot of them," he told Boxing Social yesterday.

"They’re farting worse than ducks. They can’t put it on in this climate. There’s no money for it. Nobody wants to pay that kind of money with no crowds," he continued.

"Only the Saudis have got [the cash], and they ain’t jumping up and down to put it on, are they? I’ll tell you why: The timing’s wrong for it, the timing’s all wrong. We’ll fight, anyway, we’d love to fight. We get paid.”

On Thursday, Warren didn't put minds at rest by saying: "I know what everybody wants to hear, but I don't wanna tell people what they wanna hear, I wanna tell them, 'This is what's happening.'"

But in a bid to allay the Furys' and fans' fears, Joshua representative and Matchroom Boxing head Eddie Hearn spoke to Sky Sports on Thursday.

"We're in a good place," Hearn insisted. "I saw John Fury's comments. It's almost like they don't really want the fight. I'd like them to talk it up, rather than talk it down."

Hearn tried to allay fears over the blockbuster bout. © Reuters

"We're quite aware that there has been a global pandemic. We're quite aware that it's not easy, but we're out there grafting away every day to get this done," Hearn went on. 

"A little bit of support would be nice, John and Tyson, thank you very much."

Moving on to site deals, the main sticking point preventing progress, Hearn reiterated that there will be "around three or four offers presented to both camps this weekend and then it's over to them and the teams to discuss which one we want to take."

"Same thing applies [as before]," Hearn said. "Two fights this year. It is a summer fight. That's everything we're working towards and [we're] as confident as ever that this gets done.

"I know that there are some negative people out there and people that believe we can't pull it off, but we spend a lifetime pulling things off, and I believe we will get this done, and I believe you will see this fight in the summer," he vowed.