Nothing indicates Netflix has threatened to walk away. Glaser is warning about what can happen when a promoter pushes a strong negotiating position too far.
Hearn’s own statements give Glaser plenty to work with.
The Matchroom promoter revealed that almost everyone involved wants the bout in New York except himself and Joshua. He said Netflix particularly wants America and described the pressure coming from the people financing and distributing the event.
“They really want to do the fight in the US, and it’s almost like a not a please Eddie, but like we’re partners. We’re paying a lot of money. Come on, you have to kind of understand that we need to put the fight in where we feel is commercially the best place,” Hearn said to The Punch Podcast.
Hearn then made an important admission.
“I don’t agree with their arguments, but I’m not paying the money.”
Joshua has a contractual position requiring an agreement before the fight can be moved from Britain. Hearn has every reason to protect what his fighter signed for rather than surrendering it because Netflix prefers New York.
But having contractual leverage and knowing how far to push it are two different things. Hearn may be contractually right and strategically wrong. There is such a thing as winning a negotiation and losing in the end.
Hearn can use Joshua’s contract to force Fury-Joshua back to Britain or demand an enormous payment to approve New York. Either result might look like a victory for Joshua’s side. The real question is what that victory costs.
Hearn isn’t merely seeking reasonable compensation for Joshua agreeing to change venues. He openly described a strategy designed to make the American option so expensive that the people financing the event abandon it.
“We want to make it so much money they just go, oh, do you know what? Let’s just do it in England. That’s our dream scenario,” Hearn said.
That is where Glaser’s warning becomes difficult to dismiss.
If Netflix is investing heavily in Fury-Joshua and believes New York gives it a more commercially valuable event, deliberately pricing its preferred location out of consideration is a gamble.
Hearn might win.
He might force Fury-Joshua back to Britain and demonstrate that refusing to budge worked. He might instead extract a massive additional payment for Joshua before agreeing to New York.
But winning the immediate negotiation doesn’t guarantee that Hearn wins in the long run.
If Netflix leaves the experience believing it spent enormous money only to battle with a promoter who wasn’t financing the event over where that event should take place, Hearn’s victory may prove more expensive than the concession he refused to make.
“To Eddie Hearn, Turki Alalshikh, & Frank Warren, Eddie Hearn, you & Anthony Joshua are attempting to holdup Fury-Joshua by insisting the fight be in the UK, but you as Anthony Joshua’s Promoter have never made an offer for you to Promote the fight, because you won’t put up your own money to back your own fighter’s position,” said Glaser on X. “But now you are attempting to put Netflix in a position where Netflix could pull out, & that’s not good for Boxing. We need more Netflix in Boxing, & a lot less Eddie Hearn’s.”
Glaser then went directly after Hearn’s financial position, arguing that he has never made an offer to promote the fight or put Matchroom’s money behind Joshua’s position.
“Hearn, put up or shut up! That’s how business works,” Glaser said.
That criticism carries additional force because Hearn himself acknowledges that Alalshikh is spending heavily on the event while admitting, “I’m not paying the money.”
Hearn has also drawn a hard line over any attempt to announce New York before Joshua agrees to the change.
“If they announce that fight without an agreement in place to change the venue, there will be no fight,” Hearn said. “And we ain’t bluffing.”
Protecting Joshua’s contractual position is part of Hearn’s job. But a promoter also has to recognize when winning one negotiation risks damaging a much more valuable relationship.
Netflix is bringing money and enormous worldwide distribution to Fury-Joshua. Hearn may succeed in forcing the fight back to Britain or extracting a huge payment to surrender the venue.
Either way, he should be careful what he considers a victory.
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