Eddie Hearn chose not to promote Tyson Fury because he didn’t know how quickly the heavyweight would be back in title-winning form.
The pair met in Monaco in 2017. At the time Fury weighed 26 stone and hadn’t boxed in over a year as the British star was struggling with his mental health.
Hearn, who is Anthony Joshua’s promoter, says he is now kicking himself as Fury went on to claim one of the best sporting comebacks of all time, beating Deontay Wilder twice to win and retain the WBC belt.
“It’s hard because AJ is a close friend of mine,” Hearn said on the Boxing Social podcast. “I always wanted them two to fight, have AJ be our guy and I could just imagine beating him.
“With Tyson, I flew him out to Monaco and he was about 26 stone. He was sweating, and I just thought to myself: ‘You ain’t ever fighting again.’
“So the plan was to have two easy fights, by that we meant the likes of Sefer Seferi – which he did – but then have a step-up and fight like Manuel Charr.
“I was just thinking... If I had known that he would fight Sefer Seferi, someone else and then Deontay Wilder, I would have been all over it.”
Joshua and Fury were due to fight in 2021 but a court ruled the “Gypsy King” to see out his trilogy with Wilder. Joshua boxed Oleksandr Usyk in September and lost, which meant a unification bout between “AJ” and Fury couldn’t be arranged.
Usyk will look to retain the belts in their rematch this spring, with the victor likely to take on Fury. Hearn would set up such a fight and added he believes Fury is the No1 heavyweight in the world.
“I never really say anything bad about Tyson Fury, sometimes I’ve thought he was the best heavyweight in the world and he’s gone on to prove that right now, on paper, he’s the No1 heavyweight in the world.”
