The coming together happened one day before Parker’s press conference to cement a mandatory defence of his belt against Hughie Fury in Manchester, a move which irked the challenger who subsequently labelled Hearn ‘a cockroach’ at the media gathering.
At the time of the meeting, Hearn said he was still unsure the Parker v Fury fight would go ahead and had Dillian Whyte as a back-up should Duco need a replacement to step in.
Fury initially pulled out of a scheduled first meeting in New Zealand on May 6, which would have gone some way to understanding Hearn’s thinking on the matter.
“We don’t know whether the Hughie Fury fight will happen, the jury is still out on that one and if it doesn’t I think Dillian Whyte’s message is ‘we’re standing by, we’re ready’ and listen Joseph Parker to me looks like a guy who doesn’t mind who he fights,” said Hearn.
On what subject was covered at the Duco talks, Hearn added: “Obviously we’re both blessed to have heavyweight champions that we represent and obviously at some stage they’re going to fight each other.
“Interesting that Joseph Parker and his team are fighting a Brit next. We want to make sure the next guy they fight next is one of our (Matchroom) guys and that is Dillian Whyte, Tony Bellew or Anthony Joshua.
“It’s important that we stay close to each other and it’s important that we strategize together on the way forward,” he stated.
Should Fury defeat Parker and cause an upset, it will be interesting to see if Hennessy Sports would then be willing to open talks with Hearn after what they obviously see as disrespect towards their man.
