WBA Champion Gassiev Objects as Fury vs Joshua Contract Dispute Escalates
Murat Gassiev's team formally challenges the WBA plan to create a super title for Fury vs Joshua while Hearn and White clash over contract terms.
The Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua fight keeps finding new ways to get messier. Two fresh obstacles surfaced on Saturday: WBA heavyweight champion Murat Gassiev formally objected to the title plan, and Eddie Hearn's side escalated a contract dispute over Dana White's involvement.
Gassiev's co-promoter and legal counsel John Wirt issued a blunt statement to Boxing News 24. "If anyone should be fighting for the WBA Super heavyweight title, it is Murat Gassiev, the reigning champion, not two boxers who currently hold no world title between them."
The WBA currently lists Gassiev as its sole heavyweight world champion after Oleksandr Usyk vacated earlier this year. Creating a second "super" champion above Gassiev would contradict the WBA's own stated policy of reducing the number of titleholders per division. Gassiev's team is arguing the organization cannot manufacture a belt for two former champions who currently hold nothing.
Separately, the contract language around White's promotional role has become a fight of its own. Hearn argues that Joshua's contract restricts White from helping promote the December 11 card in Cardiff, per Boxing News 24. White's representatives dispute that reading, claiming the contract names Zuffa and TKO specifically but not White as an individual.
The distinction matters because White's appearance would effectively promote Zuffa Boxing to a global Netflix audience on Matchroom's home turf. Hearn wants that exposure blocked, especially after Zuffa signed several former Matchroom fighters. White has not said whether he would step aside if his presence endangered the fight.
A planned press conference remains uncertain. The December 11 date in Cardiff is still the target, but with a WBA title dispute and a contract argument stacking up alongside Fury's own skepticism, the path to the ring keeps getting narrower.
Every day this fight sprouts a new problem. Gassiev has a legitimate gripe. The WBA has spent years talking about cleaning up its title mess and reducing champions per division. Now they want to create a second heavyweight belt out of thin air for two guys who do not hold one? That is exactly the kind of move that makes sanctioning bodies a punchline.
The contract dispute is just as real. Hearn is not going to let Dana White walk around Cardiff promoting Zuffa Boxing on a Matchroom show. And White's team trying the "the contract says Zuffa, not Dana" loophole is cute but nobody is buying it. Dana White IS Zuffa Boxing.
I still think Fury wants this fight more than Joshua does, and I still put the odds of it actually happening well under 50 percent. Too many people with too many reasons to blow it up. At this rate, they will need a fight just to decide who gets to promote the fight.
