Hearn takes shot at Fury in press conference

Barry Hearn, the founder of Matchroom Sport, took a shot at unbeaten heavyweight contender Tyson Fury, who returns to the ring on June 15th against Tom Schwarz at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Hearn was in charge of the press conference on Monday to announce the contest between top ten heavyweight contenders Dillian Whyte and Oscar Rivas.

Rivas was in the running to face Fury on the June date, but Fury and his camp rejected the fight in favor of Schwarz.

Hearn took the opportunity during the presser to take a stab at Fury’s upcoming bout stating that Schwarz was a very low-level opponent.

While Schwarz is ranked third under the WBO, he’s never really faced top opposition or beaten any high ranked opponents. Fury will be a big step up for Schwarz in their matchup.

“Tyson Fury is the best gypsy boxer in the world, isn’t he? The king of the gypsies who’ll fight any man whatsoever? Ah, his next opponent’s ranked number 93 with BoxRec,” Barry Hearn stated. “Congratulations, make of it what you want, but let’s have no bulls*t, shall we?”

? Today’s press conference ?@DillianWhyte @BarryHearn @davidthewhiter1 @DavidPrice_1 @yvonmichelGYM

Watch back in full ? https://t.co/CLzxHx5pWD pic.twitter.com/7E9Kzt7wOV

— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) April 29, 2019

Rivas was on the verge of originally signing a deal with ESPN and Top Rank, when the offer to take on Whyte came down.

Rivas’ promoter, Yvon Michel of GYM, explained that Fury and his handlers stated that they needed an opponent who was very tall, in order to prepare for future opponents with height. The consensus around boxing is that Schwarz is a tune-up fight to prepare for a the anticipated rematch with Deontay Wilder, but Fury’s co-promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank Boxing, has already stated that a rematch would not happen until next year at the earliest.

“Right after, especially when ESPN signed Tyson Fury , we were told he might have had the task to be the opponent of Tyson Fury. Then we learned that Fury didn’t want to fight Oscar because of styles. He said it was not good for him because he wanted to get ready for a taller opponent,” Michel told in an interview from The Mirror.”

“We were working on having another stay-busy fight, and we were offered Michael Hunter, Andy Ruiz Jr, Joe Parker, and we said yes to all offers we got. Finally, we learnt they were turned down by the opponents and we got the call (to face Whyte).”