Anthony Joshua believes that the highly anticipated all-British showdown with Tyson Fury will happen eventually.
The pair have had two major fight talks fail to get to the ring stage since 2021 and mostly recently in October.
In March 2021, a two-fight deal was signed by both parties starting with a bout in Saudi Arabia on August 14. However, following an official announcement in May, a judge in the US court ruled that Deontay Wilder was due a third fight with Fury putting an end to the agreement.
Joshua then went on to lose to WBO mandatory, Oleksandr Usyk twice potentially killing off the chances of the bout with Fury. But last month it seemed as though British boxing fans would finally be treated to Joshua vs Fury after they entered into negotiations for a December 3 clash.
With Usyk ruling himself out of competition until early 2023, Fury offered Joshua a shot at his WBC title. Discussions appeared to be positive at the start, but communication crashed at the latter stages after Fury set multiple deadlines.
Despite all of the frustrations in trying to make the fight happen, Joshua remains positive and is confident hat the fight will happen
“It will happen. It will happen though. Same generation,” he told DAZN.
“Aside from the entertainment side, just as two competitors, two fighters, he’s definitely a fighting man and what people fail to realise – like they say ‘the social media stuff is annoying’ but culturally speaking from Tyson Fury’s culture, the Gypsy culture. You’ve watched the documentaries on Netflix and stuff it’s embedded in his culture.
“What we see is ‘why is he on social media?’ I know from growing up and being around that community as well, so I know that’s just how they call out fights and stuff, it’s nothing personal but from my culture, we don’t really deal with stuff like that we’re a bit more lowkey and handle our business so that’s where there’s a culture clash,” the British-Nigerian said.
Joshua went on to say that they both still want the fight to happen.
“But two fighting guys aside from tens of thousands of people coming out to an amazing stadium, he’s a fighting man and he wants to fight regardless of who’s watching, he just wants to fight and so do I.”
Before the fight can happen though, both men have separate opponents to face. Fury is set to face Derek Chisora for a third time on December 3 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Meanwhile, Joshua is expected to return in either January or February next year against a currently undisclosed opponent. According to promoter Eddie Hearn, Dillian Whyte is the frontrunner.
Credit: punchng.com
