Eddie Hearn reveals how much Anthony Joshua wants to step aside for Tyson Fury

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Eddie Hearn has named Anthony Joshua’s price to walk away from his world heavyweight rematch with Oleksandr Usyk, saying it would take at least £40m for Joshua to give up the bout.

There has been talk of Tyson Fury stepping in to fight Usyk in an effort to unify the heavyweight division, after Usyk took Joshua’s world titles when they met in September. Joshua instantly enacted his rematch clause and is due to meet Usyk again in the spring, but Fury’s camp would prefer him to step aside and let their champion take on a fellow title holder.

Hearn, Joshua’s promoter, revealed Fury’s team had “reached out” to request Joshua step aside.

Of the cost to persuade Joshua to walk away, Hearn said: “Seven figures? A million? If you want to get him not to fight Oleksandr Usyk you have to times that by 40... At the moment there is communication between the two teams to say is it something, and the answer is AJ has not been spoken to about this yet.

“I’ll deal with it and when I feel there’s an opportunity for Anthony and 258 [Management] we’ll sit down with them and present it to them but I won’t do that until it’s the right opportunity. If there’s a route and an offer and it makes sense then we’ll see but right now, it’s just conversations between the camps.

“At the moment Anthony Joshua is fighting Oleksandr Usyk and that’s the situation.”