EDDIE HEARN rejected the chance to sign Tyson Fury in 2017 because he was so overweight.
The Matchroom promoter held talks with the Gypsy King in Monaco and regrets his decision with hindsight.
Eddie Hearn rejected the chance to sign Tyson Fury and thought the Gypsy King would never get back in shape after he ballooned to 27st 7lbs
Fury ballooned to a whopping 27st 7lbs in November 2017, the time he ran into Hearn.
He managed to shed a staggering 8st for his June 2018 comeback fight with Sefer Seferi and a further 1st 4lbs for his controversial draw against Deontay Wilder in December that year.
Fury is now WBC heavyweight champion and widely considered the best in the division.
Asked which fighter he could have signed but didn’t, Hearn revealed the Gypsy King was the one that got away.
Speaking in 2020, he told ‘Doing the Rounds’: “I mean you could say Tyson Fury.
“I had a chance to sign him. I was in Monaco, I think I could have signed him.
“I didn’t want to give him the fights that he wanted to take at the time, because I thought it was just too much money and the fights weren’t good enough – and I probably should have done it, to be honest with you.
“I looked at him and I thought, ‘You ain’t ever going to come back anyway, look at the size of you,’ but he surprised everybody and how wrong I was.
Fury completed his historic comeback – demolishing Deontay Wilder in February
“Fury is definitely up there, and there’s a few others. A few American guys that I probably had the chance to sign as well.”
Fury beat Wilder twice to win the WBC heavyweight title.
He is now set to come out of retirement to face Oleksandr Usyk.
Usyk holds the WBA, IBF and WBO straps after beating Anthony Joshua for a second time in Saudi Arabia at the weekend.
