Eddie Hearn has made a sweeping statement following last night’s (21 December) bout between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.
Usyk once again defeated Fury in the ring, following their first match-up back in May this year, where the Ukrainian won by split decision and became the undisputed heavyweight champion.
But in the rematch, the 37-year-old won by unanimous decision, with all three judges scoring the match 116-112 in favour of ‘The Cat’.
However, boxing promoter Eddie Hearn was quick to move onto the next big thing, quickly hinting at what could be next for ‘The Gypsy King’.
The Brit is known for his relentless advertising and promoting of upcoming fights, making him one of the best in the boxing game – adding even more fuel to the fire after Saturday’s bout.
Hearn’s comments came after Fury’s brutal response to the second loss of his career, where he criticised the use of AI judging, which was tested for the fight to provide a different perspective.
Though it didn’t affect the final score and was only used for research purposes, the 36-year-old said of the use of technology in sport during his post-fight press conference: “F**k all computers. Keep the humans going. More jobs for humans, less jobs for computers.”
The boxer went on to further criticise other modes of modern technology, adding: “And f**k electric cars too while we’re at it.”
If you hadn’t guessed already, the AI scored the fight in favour of Usyk, at 118-112.
But Hearn was quick to suggest that fans would be eager to see Fury take on Anthony Joshua, who also lost to Usyk back in 2021, at long last.
He said to DAZN (via The Daily Mail): “I don’t think it’s time to start screaming, this night is Usyk vs Fury, but the reality is there’s only one fight for Tyson Fury and that’s Anthony Joshua,
“It’s the biggest fight probably in the history of British boxing, everyone will always want to see it.”
The 45-year-old went on: “And by the way, that wasn’t a Tyson Fury that looked finished, it wasn’t a flat performance, it wasn’t a poor performance, he didn’t look gun-shy, he didn’t look like his punch resistance was in question like we talked about earlier.
“I think Tyson Fury is still potentially at the peak of his powers, just not good enough to be Oleksandr Usyk tonight.”
He concluded: “But for me, AJ against Fury is the one, it’s the one at Wembley. I’m going to be pushing His Excellency (Turki Alalshikh) to make the fight, but that’s maybe one for another day, tonight belongs to Oleksandr Usyk.
“But Fury will struggle with this, I think. All fighters do, AJ struggled with the Dubois defeat as well, you’re a winner and when you get beat it hurts and this will hurt Fury.”
During his post-fight press conference, Fury also described the result as a ‘Christmas gift’ from the judges, as well as potentially hinting that this might not be the last time we see him in the ring.
“You might see me fight again, you might not.” he said as per Talk Sport.
I’m sure we all want to see the Gypsy King step into the ring against AJ, so let’s wait and see.
