Eddie Hearn is 'not very confident' Anthony Joshua will end up fighting Tyson Fury next - but will do everything in his power to get the deal over the line.

The Gypsy King publicly challenged Joshua to a 'Battle of the Brits' in Cardiff on December 3, offering him the immediate chance to get back in the world title picture following his back-to-back defeats to Oleksandr Usyk.

Those conversations were temporarily put on hold for a couple of weeks to honour the passing of Queen Elizabeth II who died at the age of 96 on September 8.

However, it appears that they are still no closer to agreeing a deal to fight each other, despite reportedly resuming talks earlier this week.

READ MORE: Tyson Fury warned to expect backlash if Anthony Joshua fight doesn't happen next

Boxing News - Eddie Hearn casts doubt on Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua

Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua are expected to square off on December 3

Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua are expected to square off on December 3

In an interview with The National, promoter Hearn cast doubt on the prospect of AJ facing Fury before the end of the year.

Asked how strongly he feels the fight will happen, he replied: “Not very confident. After the last 72 hours, I think it’ll be very difficult to be confident. But we carry on. I’ve got a call with Queensbury after this and we’re trying.

“But if there’s a deadline that pops up … probably AJ, on Monday, should have turned around after Fury cancelled the fight and gone, ‘We’re moving on’. But we didn’t, we stayed in it, we kept trying. And I expect Fury to come out today and say, 'Right, time up again, I’m fighting Manuel Charr', which will be a huge disappointment for everybody.

“They know where we are up to in the negotiations and the contracts, so they know we can’t sign today, because we’ve just had their comments [on our contract revisions] back. But they’re trying to get Fury to be reasonable, which is easier said than done.”

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As for Joshua, Hearn revealed that he has resume training camp as he wants to make sure he stays ready for a potential fight with Fury.

“He’s keeping himself to himself,” he added. “He just sees the stuff on Instagram, which is generally a sign that you don’t want to do the fight, if you’re coming out and trying to rub people up the wrong way.

“But [Joshua's] training hard. December 3 is never ideal coming off the Usyk fight, but we were told that’s the only option. So he accepted that, he’s in training, and we’ll see what happens.

“Obviously, it’s a split in terms of the financials. AJ has a number of commercial deals already in place and at the moment we have no say, or no final say, as to any of the deals involved with the shows, which contractually we can’t do.

“So we’re trying to overcome that. But it’s quite complicated and it involves speaking to a lot of people. Because AJ has always been the owner of his shows ultimately, and now he’s a co-owner of a show with different broadcasters, different sponsors, different promoters. And it’s complicated.

“But we’re all in on it. Queensbury are not putting us under any pressure; they’re not putting deadlines on us. But Tyson Fury pops up and says, ‘You’ve got to sign it today’. We’re going backwards and forwards, so there’s a lot of unrealistic deadlines.

“And I think the public are just starting to see now that, actually, maybe, he’s a little bit all over the place and he’ll end up fighting Manuel Charr in a terrible fight and pretend that it’s all because it’s AJ’s fault.”


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