Barry Hearn has warned rival boxing promoter Frank Warren that Anthony Joshua will not accept a 50-50 purse split for a prospective all-British super-fight against Tyson Fury in April next year.
Hearn, head of Joshua's promoters Matchroom, responded furiously to an assertion from Warren on BBC 5 Live's Sportsweek programme that the pair would share the proceeds of the big-money bout.
Fury is set to face WBC champion Deontay Wilder in the United States in December and it is widely assumed the winner will then open negotiations for a contest to unify the belts early next year.
Hearn, who watched Joshua dispatch Alexander Povetkin at Wembley on Saturday night, declared: "It's not a 50-50 split against the best heavyweight in the world – you can forget that completely."
Hearn believes Wilder will beat Fury in December, which would pave the way for what would appear to be a much more straight-forward series of negotiations with the American's camp.
And he turned his anger back on the show's presenter Garry Richardson, adding: "It's outrageous on national radio to try to agree terms to a commercial fight. You should know better, and Radio 5 should be ashamed of themselves.
"Wilder or Tyson Fury subject to terms on April 13, without a problem in the world – but you [Warren] will ask for a ridiculous amount of money and it won't be made."
Warren insisted if Fury does pull off an upset over Wilder, Joshua will be unable to escape the pressure to square off against his long-time domestic rival.
"I believe Tyson Fury will be the winner of that fight so why on earth would anyone want to stand in its way?" added Warren.
"Everybody is sensible enough to make sure that big fights happen and I don't believe anybody will stop that fight from happening. The only person who can stop that fight happening is Anthony Joshua."
Fury himself appeared less optimistic than Warren, though, and tweeted on Sunday: "I have to say the saddest thing ever the British fight fans will never get to see Fury vs Joshua.
"That's a crying shame! It's the biggest British fight in history of boxing in Briton (sic) but Sky & Matchroom have robbed the paying public again. Ask your self why don't they want this?"
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here