Eddie Hearn has claimed that Anthony Joshua only wants to fight Tyson Fury if he is restricted to just one fight this year, despite the heavyweight champion already having a fight scheduled against Kubrat Pulev.

An all-British heavyweight title unification fight is hotly anticipated by boxing fans in Britain who currently have to wait until both AJ and Fury face their next mandatory opponents, however, Hearn remains confident that all sides can reach an agreement to pull the mega-fight forward.

Joshua was scheduled to fight Pulev on June 20th, however, that fight has been postponed due to the current coronavirus pandemic which has seen all sport cease to a halt.

If the delays continue beyond the summer meaning that Anthony Joshua can only fight once, then his preferred choice would be an all-British heavyweight unification bout against WBC champion Tyson Fury.

Hearn has however stated that a lot of these plans rely on the cooperation of Deontay Wilder moving his rematch with Tyson Fury to make way for the British heavyweight clash.

“We’ve got June 20th as a pencilled in a date for Anthony Joshua,” Hearn told Sky Sports News.

“We will make a statement, potentially this week or early next week, that’s likely to be delayed, I think that’s pretty straightforward and obvious; hopefully til the end of July.

“If it starts kicking on beyond that, you get to a situation where if Joshua is only going to box once this year he’d like it to be against Tyson Fury.”

Fury himself has had his summer trilogy fight with Deontay Wilder rescheduled and is now due to take place in Las Vegas in October. Hearn is however confident that an agreement could but reached to ensure the next box office heavyweight clash is AJ v Fury.

“The situation is a little bit out of our hands,” he said. “If Bob Arum and Al Haymon (Fury and Wilders promoters) can talk and make Deontay Wilder wait a little bit we would love to go into that fight next.

“We are contractually bound to face Pulev who is with Bob Arum and there is a deal to be done. A lot depends on Deontay Wilder.”