Eddie Hearn has spent the summer publicly insisting Anthony Joshua will knock Tyson Fury out. Fury says he has heard something very different.

In a social media clip carried by fight outlets on Wednesday, Fury alleged that Hearn stood ringside in Saudi Arabia in July and privately wrote Joshua off the moment Kristian Prenga knocked him down.

“Eddie Hearn is a sellout. Ringside, in Joshua’s last fight, when ‘AJ’ got dropped over, Eddie Hearn was saying he’s rubbish, he’s a piece of s**t, he’s finished, absolute sausage,” Fury said.

“As soon as AJ knocked a man out … he jumped around like he was the best thing since sliced bread.”

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Hearn was Joshua’s promoter that night at the Jeddah Superdome and remains the man selling the December fight.

Hearn’s public verdict is the opposite

Speaking to reporters after the Prenga fight, Hearn gave a very different reading of what he had just watched.

“He can fight like that and beat Tyson Fury, because he’s got the power to knock anyone out,” Hearn said.

“All I know is he’s going to give you 110 percent. And I stand by, if he hits him on the chin, the fight’s over.”

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The Matchroom chairman was blunter still.

“I believe he knocks (Fury) out.”

Joshua had been floored twice inside the opening round by Prenga before rallying to stop the Albanian with a right hook in the second, Al Jazeera reported from Jeddah. It was one of two tune-ups staged around the Fury-Joshua deal; Fury had beaten Mariusz Wach in Thailand the night before.

Days from a Cardiff announcement

Fury’s accusation lands at an awkward moment for Hearn. The promoter told reporters last week that the Fury-Joshua fight would be announced imminently, after months of a venue row with the Saudi-backed side that wanted the bout in the United States.

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“It will be an announcement next week, but I can’t tell you if it’s Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday,” Hearn said on 19 September. “I would think sooner rather than later.”

Several reports on 20 September pointed to Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on 11 December, with Netflix set to broadcast a bout said to be worth close to $200m. Neither camp has officially confirmed the date or venue.

Fury himself declared the fight off on 7 September, calling out Oleksandr Usyk for a third meeting instead. Hearn’s answer that day was that Matchroom held “a signed legally binding contract to fight Tyson Fury and that’s exactly what we will be doing.”

Hearn has not publicly addressed Fury’s ringside claim.

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