EDDIE HEARN once rejected the chance to sign Tyson Fury in 2017 because he was so overweight.
The Matchroom promoter held talks with the Gyspsy King in Monaco and regrets his decision with hindsight.
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.
Asked which fighter he could have signed but didn’t, Hearn revealed the Gypsy King was the one that got away.
He told ‘Doing the Rounds’ in April: “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 is definitely up there, and there’s a few others. A few American guys that I probably had the chance to sign as well.”
Hearn is under pressure to match up Fury with his current big hitter Anthony Joshua – who have agreed to a two-fight deal in 2o21 – but was also asked who else he would like to have on his books in an ideal world.
He added: “If I could sign three fighters right now in the world – I would sign Tyson Fury, I would sign Ryan Garcia, and I would sign Gervonta Davis.
“There’s three people involved with Tyson Fury – MTK, Top Rank and Frank Warren.
“They’ve kind of agreed among themselves that all three of those must be there and present when we have a proper chat.
“So at some point we will have to talk, and I have no problem on the phone, face-to-face.
“I’m not going to let a fight like that slip away, because we don’t talk.”
