The offer from Saudi Arabia to host Tyson Fury’s undisputed fight with Anthony Joshua has been branded a “mirage”.
Fury’s promoter Bob Arum has cast serious doubt over the fight taking place this summer.
And he is also ready to abandon the £200million bout to instead hold talks over a third fight with Deontay Wilder.
Arum and Fury flew to California from Las Vegas on Tuesday to continue discussions relating to Fury’s contract with Wilder.
The rivals were due to complete their trilogy last summer but the fight was rescheduled three times due to the coronavirus crisis.
Fury eventually walked away claiming the rematch clause had expired, but Wilder took the matter to arbitration.
(Image: REUTERS)
And Arum believes he could turn those talks into fight negotiations.
“A switch to negotiation is possible,” he told Ring magazine.
And Arum added: “If I had to bet whether the Tyson Fury versus Anthony Joshua fight would happen or not, I would say no.
“As far as I can see this whole thing with Eddie [Hearn] is just a mirage.
“Eddie is desperate, he has one more fight with AJ, and he wants it to be the fight against Fury.
“But if a fight against Tyson is delayed, to the winter, then AJ has to fight Oleksandr Usyk, and that’s not that big a fight. Eddie is a desperado here.”
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Hearn has rubbished claims Fury could fight Wilder and insists a deal – and an official announcement – is imminent.
“Bob is trying to put pressure on, that’s how he works,” he said.
“He will think it’s a bit slow now, give an interview thinking it will speed up the Middle East. We don’t need to play that game, everybody’s on board, let’s just go through the process correctly.
“Time is of the essence and if we got into a situation where the site agreement wasn’t signed in less than a week, we would have to start looking at things.
“But no-one has a plan B, which is a good sign. Bob may talk about Tyson fighting Wilder, but he ain’t going to fight Wilder, it’s a nothing fight.“
