A blockbuster British fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua is back on track. Talks are underway and both sides have acknowledged to UK media in recent days. Joshua (24-3, 22KOs) would enter as the challenger for Fury’s lineal/WBC heavyweight championship, which is tentatively targeted for December 17 at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
For now, Joshua’s side remains interested enough in the fight to play out the string.
“I saw the callout and took it with a pinch of salt,” Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s career-long promoter, admitted during an interview with IFL TV’s Kugan Cassius. “Two weeks ago, he retired. Ten days ago, he wanted to fight Derek Chisora in December. Then he wanted to fight Oleksandr Usyk. Then he wanted a half-a-billion or he’d never fight again. Then he wanted to fight Anthony Joshua. I don’t really trust or believe anything he says. But of course, you have to take it seriously, if it serious. We have to explore whether it is or not.”
The superfight was previously explored at least three times before and even agreed to in full last spring. Joshua held the WBA/IBF/WBO/IBO titles at the time of agreeing to terms to face Fury last August in what would have been for the undisputed championship. Those plans were squashed, however, due to Fury’s inability to free himself from a contractually-bound trilogy clash with Deontay Wilder (42-2-1, 41KOs), per the terms of their February 2020 rematch.
“Don’t forget, we signed for that fight a year ago,” noted Hearn. “That fight was stopped because of the Wilder arbitration. That had nothing to do with us. We also offered Tyson Fury that fight when he wasn’t champion. We offered at 60/40. He turned it down and asked for 50/50.”
Fury went on to face Wilder for a third time, recovering from two knockdowns to score three of his own before knocking out his longtime rival in the eleventh round of their October 9 clash that was hailed as the 2021 Fight of the Year.
The bout came two weeks after any hopes of an all-UK undisputed championship were dashed. Joshua suffered the first of two decision losses to Oleksandr Usyk last September 24 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in North London, once again coming up short in their August 20 rematch in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Joshua was prepared to return in December, likely in a lower-level but still high-profile fight given his massive box-office presence. The hope was to keep him active and confident in rebuilding towards a hoped-for third championship reign.
The latest social media barrage by Manchester’s Fury (32-0-1, 23KOs) altered those plans.
Fury insisted earlier in the week that he was prepared to make a serious offer to Joshua to challenge straightaway for his lineal/WBC title.
“So, George Warren reached out to me,” Hearn revealed, referring to Warren’s son and CEO of Queensberry Promotions. “He said, ‘What do you think?’ The big thing for us over the past couple of weeks is if AJ would be ready for the middle of December, which would be December 17. He believes—the team believes he will be ready on that date. The first thing for us was, I reached out to AJ, to Freddie Cunningham at 258. I said, ‘What do you think?’ He said, ‘Of course. I want that fight.’”
