‘What a great way to go,’ Hearn said when asked whether he would retire alongside Joshua. ‘To call it a day when AJ does would be something special. Something for the history books. But it’s hard because boxing just consumes my life, it really does. I am addicted to it.

Few boxing duos have made as much of an impact as Eddie Hearn and Anthony Joshua

AJ and Eddie Hearn pictured above in camp ahead of AJ’s fight with Daniel Dubois

‘I just find it so compelling, so exciting. We’ve built a great business. We’re staging events all around the world. So it’s very difficult at that point to just go. Although, I don’t think I would ever go, but I’d hand it over to Frank Smith.

‘But again, I just love being at the shows. I love watching the fights. I love building a fighter’s career and their journey, but I’ve often thought about walking away when AJ does.

‘I even said to AJ many years ago that it would be an incredible story if when you pack it up, I’m off as well. I could see that happening, but I’ll probably be saying the same thing when I am 90. Like Bob Arum.’

For Hearn, even contemplating the idea of stepping away from a £1billion family business says a lot about his bond with Joshua. Yet their partnership is far from overbearing. There’s no clingy dynamic; they aren’t texting each other every five minutes. They respect each other’s space, keeping things balanced with occasional check-ins to ensure everything—inside and outside the ring—is on track.

‘I don’t really have a lot of friends because I don’t have time for friends,’ Hearn added. ‘But for me, the greatest friends are those that you don’t have to speak to all the time. You’re not phoning each other up and telling each other your problems on a regular basis. Or saying “you won’t believe what happened to me today”. No one’s got time for that.

Hearn and Joshua pictured together ahead of AJ’s bout with Ottow Wallin in Saudi Arabia

AJ pictured alongside the Matchroom promoter ahead of his fight with Jermaine Franklin

‘It’s the same with me and AJ. We have a mutual respect for each other. That is deeper than just a friendship. Every now and again I’ll drop him a line and we’ll have a half an hour conversation on the phone. But like I said, the greatest friendships and partnerships are ones where you don’t actually need to speak all the time.

‘We don’t need reassurance every time that we’re still friends. I’ll only go and see him once or twice in a camp. He likes me coming down but he doesn’t need me hanging around all the time. He’s got work to do and I’ve got work to do.’

The secret to Hearn and AJ’s smooth partnership? Trust. In a sport notorious for shady dealings, you won’t hear about Hearn being dragged into lawsuits over siphoned money, like when Mike Tyson famously sued Don King for $100million. Hearn and Joshua’s relationship thrives because it’s built on integrity, not drama—and that’s what sets them apart from the chaos so often seen in boxing.

‘The greatest relationships in boxing are the ones that are based on trust,’ Hearn explains.

‘When Tony Bellew was fighting David Haye I would run him through a deal and I would explain how I put the contract together but he would just go “do what is best for me, I trust you”. He would give me all of the responsibility.

‘Now, AJ is a bit deeper than that, but it’s the same kind of thing. He will get his advice from the people he trusts, he will listen and he will acknowledge it. Then he’ll make his own decisions. But, I am one of those people he trusts.

‘AJ has signed three or four contracts with us and the last one was a career-long contract. He’s turned down some crazy offers over the years. They were the wrong offers for him and he wouldn’t have gone on to what he has done if he took them but he trusted me.

Hearn recognised the talent AJ possessed during their first meeting after the 2012 Olympics

‘It means a lot because it’s very hard when you’re being offered that kind of money early in your career to have a clear mind and go to people you trust. You hear all the time of boxers getting caught up.’

Hearn nearly watched AJ slip through his fingers. Fresh off his Olympic win, major players like Golden Boy Promotions dangled multi-fight deals and money beyond belief in front of him, demanding a quick signature. But Hearn made a bold gamble.

Instead of pushing for a deal, he told AJ to meet with everyone, weigh his options, and take his time. It was a risky play—Hearn didn’t hear from Joshua for six agonizing weeks, wondering if he’d just lost the biggest talent in boxing.

‘I mean, everybody wanted to sign AJ,’ says Hearn. ‘He was with Rob McCracken at the time and obviously we had a good relationship with Carl Froch so he had seen what we had been doing.

‘But as I was talking to AJ, I was thinking, “you’re quite deep”. You could tell he was a deep thinker and that he was taking it all in. Obviously everyone wanted to speak to him so at the end of the meeting I said “I think the best thing for you to do it go and meeting everybody. Take your time, take all the offers in and then have a good long hard think. After that, we’ll speak again.”

‘He was quite surprised and said he really appreciated it when the others were saying “don’t sign with him”. “don’t meet with him”, “he’s a waste of time” and so on. They were even turning up at his door the next day asking him if he had made a decision yet. Whereas I was saying “take your time” because I knew he needed to be comfortable with his decision before he made it.

Mike Tyson (pictured on the left) famously sued boxing promoter Don King (picture right)

Iron Mike felt as thought King had cheated him out of a substantial amount of money

‘I didn’t hear from him for about six weeks. I was like “oh my god why did I say that? I’ve just lost out on signing Anthony Joshua”. But, he came back and said “I’ve met everyone and I want to sign with you”. Thank god for that. That was a massive moment for us.’

And what a loss it would have been for Hearn.

Joshua has become a household name in the UK and one of the highest-earning boxers, pulling in £40m for his knockout of Francis Ngannou earlier this year and amassing a net worth of £100m—an unimaginable success from his childhood dreams.

Yet Hearn recognised Joshua’s potential from their very first meeting. He saw something special in AJ beyond the gold medal and shared the critical criteria he uses to evaluate every aspiring boxer he encounters.

‘To be successful in this sport, boxers have to have something about them. AJ was an extreme example because when he came in here after the Olympics, his brand was well on its way,’ he said.

‘He’d walk into the room and light it up with a big smile. He looked a million dollars and you’d think “bloody hell you’ve got it all”. They are the easy ones to identify, but there are plenty of others that become stars. I like a rough diamond.

‘I’m not always invested in the ones that come through school with 15 GCSEs and A*’s at A-Level and goes to university and gets a first and then masters. I like a rough diamond.

‘But at the same time, it’s a bit like boxing for me. You don’t have to have won the Europeans, the world’s or an Olympic gold. Don’t get me wrong, it helps your profile but there’s plenty of great fighters that haven’t made it that way. So, it’s something you’ve got to have, something else in this sport to succeed.

‘With AJ, the reason why I always say he is a champion – is because of his heart. If people knew the type of person he is, they would understand. The heart, the loyalty, the personable nature of the man.

Joshua pictured celebrating after winning Olympic gold at the 2012 Games in London

‘He’ll just text my dad randomly on a Sunday going “hey Barry, just checking in with you. It’s been a while and I just wanted to say hope all is great with you. I’ve been training hard etc” then they might have an hour-long phone call.

‘AJ’s got a lot on his plate but do that, to think about that and take the time out of his day to do that is amazing. That sort of thing goes a long way and really shows his character.’

Their relationship hasn’t been without its challenges, though. Joshua’s first professional defeat in June 2019, when he lost to Andy Ruiz Jr. in New York, sent shockwaves through the boxing world.

Hearn was by Joshua’s side during that devastating loss, handling the media storm with care and ensuring that his fighter’s image didn’t take a damaging hit. But he couldn’t help but feel guilt for what unfolded on that night.

‘Our most testing time was definitely the Ruiz stuff and the defeat there. It’s because that loss was definitely a surprise at the time. It was never part of the script,’ Hearn recalls.

‘I think we had to take a bit of the responsibility, because collectively, we made the decision to fight Ruiz [after Jarrell Miller was pulled out for testing positive for drugs].

‘Like I said before, AJ will always be the one that makes the final decision… but should we have fought Ruiz three weeks out? I had other options to take that were a lot easier and we could have gotten away with. But, I also wanted a real fight at Madison Square Garden and he did as well.

‘It’s a funny story, Don King called me up when we were making the decision. Obviously Jarrell Miller was out of the fight and we needed another opponent. There were some rumours circulating about Andy Ruiz and Don rang me up and said “Eddie don’t go with Ruiz, the guy not only looks terrible in his shorts, but he’s a good boxer.” I’m like “yeah I know he’s good, it’s a good fight, isn’t it?” But he’s saying “you don’t need a good fight.”

‘He said, “I’ve got this guy. Trevor Bryan. He looks great and your guy will win easily”. I was like “that’s not what we want”. It was AJ’s US debut. He wanted to make his mark in the US.

‘Then as I was walking home that night after Ruiz beat AJ, I was like, why didn’t we just fight Trevor Bryan? But it actually ended up being one of the best things that, in a way, happened to the story.

‘He bounced back with a massive fight and a win straight away. He also got a huge payday as well in the rematch for that fight. But it kind of began the catalyst for the change that he needed to make, that he searched for, for a long time.

Hearn’s relationship with Joshua was tested after the shock defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019

AJ was meant to fight Jarrell Miller but tested positive for drugs and Ruiz was brought in

Hearn feels guilty about the situation but AJ went on to win his belts back in the rematch

‘Going into the Ruiz fight, probably coming off the Povetkin fight, he wanted to improve in different areas. He was searching so hard for improvements that he got stuck a little bit when it came to his training team. He was in-between styles and bringing different people in.

‘Where he is now with Ben and Lee is great. Even his mindset, he is just a completely different fighter with a completely different fire and it’s so good to see because to be honest, I didn’t know whether that was coming. Especially after the Usyk defeat.

‘When we sat there after the second Usyk defeat in the presser, I’d never seen him show emotion like that. He’s a very brave-faced individual. After the first Ruiz loss I went to his apartment in New York the next day. He was like “yeah, you know how boxing is, we’ll be back”.

‘I knew he was hurting. But after the Usyk defeat, to break down like that at the press conference, if you know, AJ, that was wow moment. But again, I think that was good for him, because it’s kind of like all this pressure built up over the years.

‘It felt like it came out of him that night. It was moment where he needed to kind of do that for himself rather than just trying to be this perfect role model or this fighter that says the right things all the time. But, yeah, that really shocked me that night.’

Hearn could find himself in another difficult position given Usyk’s recent comments to Mail Sport, revealing he’s open to a trilogy if Joshua beats Daniel Dubois and he defeats Tyson Fury again.

Despite his recent resurgence, facing Usyk again is risky; a loss could overshadow his progress and reignite doubts about his dominance.

When asked whether his man has what it takes to beat Usyk at a third time of trying, Hearn said: ‘I don’t think I’d ever not pick AJ to win a fight, but it’s difficult when he’s lost twice to sit here and tell you confidently that he wins against Usyk.

Joshua has lost twice to undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (pictured right)

Joshua broke down in the press conference after the second fight in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Hearn says Ben Davison (pictured on the left) has brought the best out of Joshua

‘But the way he’s fighting now, the belief that Ben Davison and the team have in that Usyk fight now, the ferocity that he’s punching with, I don’t see Usyk winning the fight.

‘But listen, Usyk’s proved us wrong so many times and and I guess he’ll be the favourite for the fight. You know, if he beats Fury again, he’s probably going to be the favorite going into an AJ fight.

‘Although, if AJ was to knock out Daniel Dubois, there’d be a lot of people that would think that he can do it against Usyk. What story that would be? Imagine beating Usyk in the third attempt. I truly believe he can do it.’