Eddie Hearn says Joshua vs Fury can still happen: ‘This gets made over a DM’

Eddie Hearn has renewed faith that Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury could still happen and says it would only take a direct message on social media to get the wheels in motion again.

Fury, 36, retired from boxing at the beginning of the year, calling time on his career after a second successive loss to heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.

The development appeared to put an end to any fleeting hopes of finally seeing a “Battle of Britain” between Fury and Joshua, a super-fight between two generational stars that has been tipped for several years, but always stalled in negotiations.

However, Joshua’s promoter Hearn is insistent that all optimism is not lost and has outlined just how easily things could change.

"This is the kind of fight that probably gets made over a DM between the two or a text or a call," Hearn told BBC Sport.

"It's like 'look, do you fancy it?' That's it. And then, bang, it's done."

Joshua, a two-time heavyweight world champion like Fury, has been absent from the ring since suffering a brutal knockout to Daniel Dubois at Wembley in September.

His return to action has been thwarted by injury problems, with Hearn revealing that his marquee heavyweight talent will need several weeks to recover from a “minor setback” in training.

At 35, some have touted Joshua to follow Fury into retirement, which would spell the end of a historic era in British heavyweight boxing.

Hearn, however, believes Joshua is still fighting near his highest level and believes a bout with Fury does not require world titles to tear the house down.

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"Neither of them are champions. Both are huge names, both at the back ends of their careers, but more importantly both are still relatively in their prime," Hearn added.

"Before AJ lost to Dubois, everyone said this is the best AJ we've ever seen. And Fury never really showed any signs of decline against Usyk. He just got beat by the pound-for-pound number one."