Eddie Hearn believes Tyson Fury is lacking confidence heading into his clash with Anthony Joshua later this year.
Joshua and Fury have signed to face each other in a long-awaited, all-British blockbuster, likely to be staged in November.
‘AJ’ will face unknown Albanian, Kristian Prenga in a warm-up bout in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on July 25.
Fury, who came out of retirement to beat Arslanbek Makhmudov on points in April, is also keen to have another fight before facing his long-time rival, with an August 1 date mooted.
Joshua’s promoter, Hearn has questioned the Morecambe’s man’s decision to have another fight in the interim, believing it could signal a lack of belief.
“He’s going to do what he’s going to do,” the 46-year-old told Sky Sports Boxing.
“And if he feels like he needs a good fight, I like that because what that’s telling me is he’s not quite sure of himself.
“He did 12 good rounds with Makhmudov, to a point where do you really need more rounds?
“He said to us, ‘you don’t need another fight.’
“We had four rounds with Jake Paul in two years of boxing.
“You had 12 rounds with Makhmudov at Tottenham, but you still feel like you need more rounds to prepare yourself for Anthony Joshua.
“More rounds ain’t going to help you, because I see it.
“When Makhmudov came forward in that fight, I know what AJ is going to do.”
‘AJ’ came face-to-face with Prenga at their first press conference in London on Monday.
The 36-year-old will fight for the first time since knocking out Jake Paul in the sixth round in Miami in December.
10 days after stopping Paul, the Watford man suffered minor injuries in a fatal car crash which killed two of his close friends, Latif Ayodele and Sina Ghami, while on holiday in Nigeria.
Joshua has since returned to training camp in Valencia alongside former rival, Oleksandr Usyk.
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