Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua finally have a fight, a date and a stadium, but the peace has not lasted long. Barely a day after Turki Alalshikh’s Thursday announcement confirmed December 11 at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, the two camps are already at odds over how the fight was billed, who gets credit for making it, and whether their own promoters were even consulted before it went public.
Hearn Says A-Side Billing Was ‘Never Agreed’
When the fight was unveiled it went out as “Fury vs Joshua”, with Fury’s name first on the poster, the conventional marker of the A-side in a boxing promotion. Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s promoter at Matchroom, made clear that arrangement had not been signed off by his side. “Obviously they’ve announced it’s Fury vs AJ. No problem, we couldn’t care less,” Hearn told iFL TV, before adding pointedly: “No, no, that was never agreed.” Hearn said talks were continuing over the finer print, describing it as “preferences of who gets what”, and suggested the announcement had gone out before those details, including ring walk order and home dressing room, had actually been settled between the two sides.
Warren and Hearn Left Off Their Own Press Release
The billing spat sits alongside a bigger complaint from both promoters: neither Frank Warren nor Hearn was credited in the official press release confirming the fight. That statement, and Netflix’s own social media posts around it, instead named Alalshikh, Ring Magazine and UFC chief Dana White as the parties behind the deal. Hearn’s response to seeing his own name missing was characteristically blunt. “When I saw the press release, I just couldn’t stop pissing myself,” he said, before restating that he had been given assurances White and his TKO organisation would have no promotional role in the fight. Warren, speaking to talkSPORT, has been similarly dismissive of White’s involvement, and both men have made clear they regard themselves, not White, as the promoters actually staging the fight on the ground in Cardiff.
No Rematch Clause Written In
One point Warren did confirm without dispute is that the contracts contain no rematch clause. Asked directly, he told talkSPORT: “No, not at the moment.” With Fury 38 and Joshua turning 37 next month, and both men’s careers unmistakably in their final stretch, a one-off fight suits the framing Netflix and Alalshikh are selling, even if it leaves open the question of what either man does next if December 11 does not settle the rivalry as cleanly as promised. The bout has since been upgraded to carry the WBA’s revived “super” heavyweight designation, adding a title to a card that was originally announced without one.
Joshua Keeps His Focus on Fight Night
Amid the noise around billing and credit, Joshua’s own message this week was pointedly uninterested in any of it. “All that matters is whoever I fight turns up on fight night,” he posted. “Whatever they do between now and then is none of my business. We just focus on ourselves, our families and my supporters. I listen to my coaches and do what I do best.” It is a deliberately flat response from a fighter who, at 30-4, has spent much of the last two years rebuilding a career interrupted by defeats to Daniel Dubois and twice to Oleksandr Usyk, against a Fury (36-2-1) who has needed two comeback wins over Arslanbek Makhmudov and Mariusz Wach just to get back to a fight of this scale.
The two men are still due to meet face to face for the first time at the official launch press conference on Wednesday 30 September, at the newly opened British Airways ARC in Olympia, London, a fixture that has so far survived the row over billing and credit even as the promoters around it have not stopped sniping. Whether Warren and Hearn’s complaints translate into changes before fight week, or simply become part of the noise around it, should become clearer once Fury and Joshua are next in the same room.
