I’m not sure Hearn is doing anything wrong suggesting Joshua Fury will be abroad. Joshua’s last fight was in Saudi. Fury did his little WWE stint in Saudi. Fury hasn’t really had a ‘big’ fight in the UK. Joshua hasn’t fought here since 2018. We all know money talks. If the Saudis stump up the cash that’s what will happen. Hearn’s rich but he’s not that rich.
The big thing missing with this interview is the level of promotion Hearn brings to the table. Its all well and good mentioning Fury and Dubois. Fury is a U.S based fighter from here. Dubois considering his potential and fights to date the level of buzz about him is no where near what it was with the likes of AJ. Dubois is still unable to sell decent sized arena's let alone carry a PPV that Sky would be interested in. Frank has been with BT for 4 years now and as yet hasnt actually built a PPV fighter like the likes of Whyte with Hearn (whether we think hes PPV or not) I personally think Hearn will sign a dual broadcast deal with Sky and DAZN. He will be tasked with putting on 4 PPV level fights on each platform a year and another 8-12 fight night style dates. The likes of Warrington vs Stevenson, Smith vs Jacobs will move to PPV and Some of the events will be available on both platforms to give plenty of content. Hearn will then work agreements with the likes of MTK to show certain shows like Golden Contract which he will license from them via Sky. Likewise with the card they put on with Dickens vs May that had Flanagan and Jonas on the bill would turn into a Sky show. AJ will become a free agent and go to the highest bidder for each individual fight. Hearn will then expand into more territories and all of those shows will be on DAZN again giving them plenty of content to show in the UK. Just my two pennies worth. Only was Frank ends up at Sky is if Hearn walks away from them.
Thats how I think it goes. DAZN comes with Sky packages in some european countries. I dont think theyll come into the UK all that hostile at first. Get bundled in with Sky to begin with, get their name out there, then start fighting for the key rights. Before covid I thought Warrington vs Xu was destined for UK DAZN. Apparently it was all agreed, but there wasnt any space in the Sky schedule for it, going off what Hearn was proposing PPV wise and other dates. Would work with your theory that theyll share big fights.