The long-awaited “Battle of Britain” between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua has run into fresh trouble, just days after finally being confirmed for December 11 at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium. 

The Netflix-broadcast mega-fight, years in the making between the two former world heavyweight champions, is now reportedly at risk of collapsing over a promoter dispute involving Joshua’s long-time manager Eddie Hearn and UFC president Dana White.

The trouble stems from how the bout was announced. Netflix’s official release named Saudi power-broker Turki Alalshikh’s The Ring alongside White’s Zuffa Boxing as the promoters behind the event, a detail that immediately set off alarm bells in the Joshua camp. Hearn has since insisted that White has no business being involved, pointing to a contract clause that specifically excludes Zuffa Boxing from any promotional role in the fight.

He accused Netflix of missing that memo entirely and said the matter would now need to be sorted out before things could move forward.

An angry Fury took to Instagram to vent his frustration, effectively pointing the finger at Joshua’s team for the latest hold-up. “Anthony Joshua and Eddie Hearn are trying to pull out of this fight,” he wrote, accusing Hearn of manufacturing excuses out of ego and claiming the promoter had cost boxing its biggest fight. Hearn, for his part, maintained that his objection was purely contractual rather than personal, telling iFL TV plainly: “Dana White cannot be involved with this fight promotion.”

The Hearn-White feud is not new. It dates back to earlier this year when White lured Conor Benn away from Hearn’s Matchroom stable to launch Zuffa Boxing, sparking a rivalry that has played out publicly between the two figures ever since.

That tension appears to have resurfaced at the worst possible time for a fight that had already survived years of false starts, cancelled negotiations and shifting venues before finally being nailed down, with Joshua and Hearn having pushed successfully to keep the bout in Britain rather than at a rumoured Madison Square Garden alternative.

As things stand, the fight has not been officially cancelled and remains on the books for December 11, but the latest flare-up adds yet another layer of uncertainty to a matchup that boxing fans have chased for the better part of a decade.

Photo Credit: Yahoo Sports