Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury may happen in late 2018, says Eddie Hearn

Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn says Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury heavyweight megafight could take place late next year.

Fury has been given the go-ahead to resume his boxing career after accepting a backdated doping ban - and he and his arch-rival have been getting louder with their vocal sparring on social media.

Current WBA and IBF champion Joshua wants to unify the heavyweight decision and is also lining up fights against WBO champion Joseph Parker and WBC holder Deontay Wilder. But a battle between Joshua and Fury is what British boxing fans most want to see.

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This week Wladimir Klitschko - who lost to both - tipped Joshua to unify the heavyweight division, and claims the 28-year-old can dominate boxing for the next decade. But Fury struck back, telling reporters that he was “the king” of heavyweight boxing.

Meanwhile, Hearn said the hotly tipped bout between Fury and Joshua - or as Hearn calls him, A.J. - could be three fights away, but might potentially take place at the end of 2018.

“Anthony needs to be in relevant fights against the likes of Joseph Parker and Deontay Wilder, and potentially Tyson Fury at the back end of next year,” Hearn told ESPN.

“We’re not looking for Anthony to have easy fights. He will have to be in some epic fights. There are only two reasons it doesn’t happen. The first is that Tyson Fury has lost all sense of reality for a deal for that fight with A.J. He wants a lot more than a 50-50 split, which is a joke.”

Hearn added: “[the] second reason is that he can’t get himself into a physical condition which is good enough to fight A.J. I’ve talked to Tyson Fury numerous times about it and I don’t know if he was having a laugh when he was saying it’s a 50-50 split or not, but we’re not in a position to talk about that fight anyway for a while.

“Tyson needs one or two fights before he can fight A.J, he needs to get himself properly fit first and he knows that because I’ve read about him saying that.

“I saw him saying that joking aside he wasn’t really doing anything serious [in training] and had a long way to go. He can’t really run properly at the moment because he’s so heavy so is doing other things.

“It’s one thing doing 40 minutes on the cross trainer - I can do that - but it’s another doing a proper camp, that’s when we will find out if he can hold up.”

Joshua vs. Fury betting odds

Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury has yet to be confirmed but the bookies are already taking bets. Here’s the latest betting odds:

Paddy Power

• Anthony Joshua to win: 8/13
• Draw: 33/1
• Tyson Fury to win: 5/4
• Joshua to win by points or decision: 7/2
• Joshua to win by KO/TKO: 11/8
• Fury to win by points or decision: 2/1
• Fury to win by KO/TKO: 7/1

Sky Bet

• Joshua to win outright: 4/6
• Draw: 25/1
• Fury to win outright: 11/10
• Fury to win in rounds one to eight: 7/1

Betfair

• Joshua to win: 8/13
• Draw: 33/1
• Fury to win: 5/4
• Joshua to win by points or decision: 7/2
• Joshua to win by KO/TKO: 11/8
• Fury to win by points or decision: 2/1
• Fury to win by KO/TKO: 7/1