“If I had to bet whether the Tyson Fury versus Anthony Joshua fight would happen or not, I would say no,” said the Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum on Wednesday afternoon, a day after he and Fury went for an arbitration session in California, to work on mediation stemming from a proposed third bout between Fury and Deontay Wilder.

On Tuesday, Arum and Fury jetted to a section of northern California,  Napa County, where the arbiter for the Fury-Wilder arbitration has a property, to see if the parties involved can smooth over their differences.

I asked Arum, point blank, if things could start seguing from mediation to negotiation.

“A switch to negotiation is possible,” Arum said.

But, he’s still working on the summer time setup for the 32 year old Fury to battle AJ. But he didn’t seem much enthused for how the planning is going, and had some hard words for promoter Eddie Hearn, who is handling planning from the AJ side. “As far as I can see this whole thing with Eddie and (a Fury vs AJ fight in Saudi Arabia) is just a mirage,” Arum continued.

Arum speculates that Hearn is feeling the heat because his deal with AJ is soon to expire. “Eddie is desperate, he has one more fight with AJ, and he wants it to be the fight against Fury. But if a fight against Tyson is delayed, to the winter, then AJ has to fight Oleksandr Usyk, and that’s not that big a fight. Eddie is a desperado here.”

Cue Eagles song…

On Thursday, Arum told RING, a Zoom call will be held, with Arum and Frank Warren, who with his Queensberry outfit co-promotes Fury (30-0 with 21 KOs), and others. “Eddie’s out of time,” Arum stated. “Eddie hasn’t talked to us for two weeks!”

NOTE: I emailed Hearn, as well as Shelly Finkel, repping Deontay Wilder, to see if they wanted to weigh in. Hearn responded, noting, “Last communication was Friday (of last week) and we had a long call with all the lawyers on Sunday.”

NOTE 2: Hearn spoke to the Mirror, in England, and said this kerfuffle is Bob being Bob. Excerpt screen grab below:

Arum says he’s been made aware that Fury bestie Billy Joe Saunders, who fights Canelo on May 8 in Texas, isn’t that pleased, because he feels like Hearn is favoring his deal with Canelo, as opposed to looking out for Saunders, who is under the Matchroom umbrella.

Two Travellers talk shop and who knows what else. Fury feels like BJ could shock the world and beat Alvarez May 8.

“There’s real animosity now,” Arum said, indicating that he’s not on that same page with Hearn at present time in a way that suggests Fury v Joshua will get firmed up and announced.

More complications, Arum said, have to do with a proposed date, August 7. That date would mean AJ would be without lead and long-time trainer Robert McCracken, who will be helming the Great Britain squad in Tokyo at the Olympics. Arum is dubious that AJ would indeed be all good with that departure from the norm.

It sounds like either this will get sorted quickly, or go entirely off the rails, and people will pivot to other plans, for the first scrap in 2021 for both Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.