Tyson Fury claims he sent a contract to Anthony Joshua for an August showdown inside Wembley. Joshua’s manager says that’s not the case.
Is Tyson Fury hyping up fans for another Anthony Joshua fight that isn’t going to come together? That certainly seems to be the case after “The Gypsy King” claimed to have sent a contract to “AJ,” only for Joshua’s people to clarify no contract has been sent.
There are some tentative talks, but Team Joshua doesn’t sound interested in scuttling their plans for the remainder of 2023 to make a hypothetical Fury fight happen.
This all started when Fury called out Joshua on social media.
“A few days ago I sent a draft contract to Anthony Joshua for a fight in September, Wembley Stadium,” Fury said. “It’s a fight that everyone wants to see including myself. Come on, AJ. Lets give the world what they want to see. This time I’m not gonna make a million vids and keep putting pressure on. The ball is now on your side.”
Joshua’s manager, Eddie Hearn, was quick to respond.
“I don’t want to ruffle anyone’s feathers, but at the same time I feel like it’s important to tell you what’s happening,” he said in an interview with IFL TV. “And also I don’t want someone trying to make Anthony Joshua look bad for no reason.
“First things first, we have been sent no contract,” Hearn added. “No contract has been sent. Tyson Fury came out last night and said, ‘I have sent the contract to Anthony Joshua’s team.’ He hasn’t, his team hasn’t, we’ve been sent no contract for a fight in September. On Tuesday or Wednesday, George Warren sent me an email saying, ‘Look, would you be interested in a fight in September? We’ve discussed terms before. We don’t think it’ll be that hard to make. What are your thoughts?’
“I rang him and said, ‘Listen, we’re planning our August fight and we are obviously in negotiations in Saudi Arabia for the [Deontay Wilder] fight in December,” he continued. “If we can’t get that model moving, we would be more than happy to look at a Tyson Fury fight.”
Hearn concluded, “If our plans don’t come to fruition we would of course be open to discussing a fight with Tyson Fury.”
With Saudi Arabia offering high eight-figure purses to put together a wild night of Heavyweight boxing featuring Joshua vs. Wilder and Fury vs. Oleksander Usyk, none of the participants are interested in accepting tough matches that could affect that end of year payment. Fury must know this, which may be why he’s throwing a deal Joshua’s way knowing it will be turned down.
Why would he do that?
Who knows the mind of “The Gypsy King,” but it could be to counter frustrations from fans that he’s currently planning a no-stakes, can-crush against unknown opponent Demsey McKean in Australia for his fall schedule.
In the meantime, Francis Ngannou continues to sit by the phone waiting for it to ring.
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