At the press conference for Dillian Whyte v Oscar Rivas last week, Barry Hearn aimed a jibe at Tyson Fury for agreeing to face the relatively unknown Tom Schwarz in June.

The original face and promoter of British boxing and father of Eddie Hearn claimed that, like many top fighters in the sport, Fury took the fight because of the money.

Hearn made this sweeping conclusion about the current state of the sport and what drives the top boxers to take particular fights: “All these people in boxing, they talk about tough fights and how they’re not scared of anyone and they will fight anyone, but the reality is money talks.”

Then, he decided to get personal towards Fury: “Tyson Fury is the best gypsy boxer in the world, ‘King of the Gypsies’ and will fight any man what so ever… His next opponent is ranked number 93 with BoxRec. Congratulations.”

Well, it would be fair to say that Fury’s promoter Frank Warren doesn’t entirely agree with Hearn’s comments and has his back in defence of his fighter in his regular column for the Daily Star.

Warren wasn’t about to hold back and started with the boldest of statements against Hearn’s criticism. “Tyson Fury has never shied away from taking on the challenge of facing the very best.”

“Fury went to Wladimir Klitschko’s backyard to beat him and end his reign as world heavyweight champion. Fury also faced WBC title holder Deontay Wilder not long after his return.”

Many believed Fury had won against the Bronze Bomber but had to settle for a draw in controversial circumstances last December.

The English promoter for Fury believes that Anthony Joshua, promoted by Hearn, is worse than Fury for taking easy fights and believed the old timer has no leg to stand on.

He said: “Hearn’s criticism is a bit rich considering we are still waiting for Anthony Joshua to take on the American.

“Now we have to listen to all the rubbish about Fury and Wilder not wanting to fight Joshua when it was Hearn who went on national radio stating he doesn’t care if those clashes never happen.”

A Joshua-Wilder clash has been in the offing for some time now but seems far away from reality at the moment. So too has the fight between Joshua and Fury in what would be the most exciting of British heavyweight clashes.

Since then, Joshua has been at the heart of controversy surrounding his debut fight in America.
Warren also alluded to this and claimed that this has happened only because he hasn’t made the step up to face the heavyweight elites like Fury has.

He stated: “Meanwhile, Joshua has to face Andy Ruiz Jnr on June 1 after Jarrell Miller’s drug test shame.

“I feel their pain on the late change, but Joshua is mixing it with these guys because he hasn’t stepped up to fight Fury or Wilder yet.”