Joshua,Fury have a ’50-50′ chance of fighting, says Hearn

Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury have a ’50-50′ chance of their much-anticipated world heavyweight unification fight taking place this year, according to Barry Hearn – chairman of Joshua’s promoters Matchroom Boxing.

Boxing, like most of sport, is currently suspended indefinitely, with Joshua’s bout against Kubrat Pulev and fellow Brit Fury’s trilogy fight against Deontay Wilder both on hold.

The plan was – once both those fights were done and assuming both Joshua and Fury retained their belts – for a Battle of Britain unification bout to take place at the end of the year.

Despite the coronavirus chaos Hearn, father of Joshua’s promoter Eddie, feels there is still a good chance of them fighting in 2020.

He told Betfred: ‘He [AJ] wants to be boxing and he’s prepared to fight anybody tomorrow – and that includes Tyson Fury. He’s very keen on unifying the titles, and Tyson has the missing belt.

‘I think we have an excellent chance of seeing it [unification fight]. I would say it’s probably 50-50 that it’s this year, if it’s not then it’s 95-5 early 2021 – but in the meantime, there are problems to get over.’

Hearn also said that if rumours of Wilder’s injury are true, then the chances of Joshua, who holds the IBF, WBA, WBO and IBO belts, fighting WBC champion Fury would increase.

‘At the moment I’m hearing Wilder has a slight injury and isn’t going to be able to train until May,’ he said. ‘Does that bring about a delay (to Fury-Wilder 3)?

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‘Let’s take a hypothetical – if the world came back say September, and everyone’s ready to go, and Wilder’s not ready or doesn’t want the fight, then I think Joshua would drop Pulev and go for Fury because that’s the fight he wants more than anything else.’