Barry Hearn asserts that Saudi Arabian advisor Turki Alalshikh’s heavy lifting will eventually lead to the much awaited fight between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.
Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua will undoubtedly square off in the near future, according to Barry Hearn.
Both heavyweight titans have had fantastic careers as boxers. The “Gypsy King” has held belts in the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO, and WBC at various times, having defeated opponents like Tom Schwarz, Deontay Wilder, and Wladimir Klitschko. In the meanwhile, AJ has defeated fighters like Andy Ruiz Jr., Joseph Parker, and Alexander Povetkin to win every major title in his own career—all but the WBC heavyweight strap.
And despite Fury and Joshua being considered two of the world’s most decorated heavyweights of a generation, the two have never met in the ring. However, Matchroom founder Hearn has told Thursday’s episode of The Barry Hearn Show that he believes that could soon change.
He explained: “Each fight has to be judged on its own merits. AJ and Fury will fight because his excellency, Turki Alalshikh is committed to do their fight.
“This man is a boxing fanatic, by the way. The guy that’s pumping in all these hundreds of millions into boxing in the Middle East – Saudi in particular – has got plans to go bigger and further outside Saudi. That’s gonna be an interesting development because he brings with it the one thing that fighters love more than anything else – huge purses.
“And he will be the one that will insist that this fight happens.” Hearn also drew comparisons between the highly-anticipated bout between the two to a super showdown between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr, which fans ultimately had to wait some time for.
Barry Hearn thinks the fight will happen.
He continued: “Let me take you back. So, Mayweather against Pacquiao was the fight ten, fifteen years ago everyone was talking about. And it was a similar situation – everyone’s saying ‘when’s it gonna happen? When’s it gonna happen?’ It didn’t happen for years, and years, and years.
“And everyone went ‘well, they’re both past their best now’, the cynics. That fight grossed over $500million dollars. Why? Because all those years of waiting was in fact building the level of the fight to the point of view; Yes, people got frustrated, yes, people got a bit bored with it.
“But when it happened, it was mega. But is this fight gonna happen? Yes.” Mayweather fought his way to a unanimous decision after 12 rounds over a thought to be untouchable Pacquiao in May 2015, bolstering his record to 48-0 and winning the WBO welterweight title.
Turki Alalshikh is changing the game.
There has been talks of AJ and Fury meeting in the squared circle for many moons now, in a fight for the ages which every boxing fan on planet earth wants to witness. However, 2025 could well be the year for it to finally come to fruition, dependent on the result of Fury’s rematch with Oleksandr Usyk in December.
The undefeated Ukrainian was crowned undisputed heavyweight champion of the world back in May, after beating Fury via split-decision over the course of 12 rounds. And should he bested for the second time in a row this winter, then a fight between him and AJ makes the most sense.
Joshua suffered defeat at the hands of Daniel Dubois at Wembley last month, missing out on the IBF title when he was finished with a hard right hand in the fifth round. And while he may choose to trigger a rematch clause with DDD next year, he may be tempted to finally take on the ‘Gypsy King’ if he loses to Usyk again in two months’ time.
