By: Sean Crose
It may not be taking nearly as long to make as Floyd Mayweather’s fight with Manny Pacquiao was, but the long anticipated match between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua for heavyweight supremacy is certainly taking a long time – even by today’s low standards. The frustration around this saga, which is starting to seem like something out of “Waiting for Godot” may have something to do with the fact that Fury and Joshua, both heavyweight titlists actually seem to genuinely want to square off. Whether it’s red tape that’s holding the matchup back, or a beyond insane amount of difficulty getting the logistics right for such an event in the Covid era, it’s clear that even the parties involved are now becoming frustrated.
“As we stand here now there hasn’t been any contracts,” says Fury promoter Frank Warren. “I like to believe that that contract will be here soon. But, what I was being told on how it’s going to be delivered by him, that it’s going to be in tomorrow, which we’ve been hearing every day for God knows how long – Bob Arum’s pretty exasperated about it – it hasn’t come in yet, so we’ll see. And like this week is the deadline for it…this is the deadline.”
Warren makes it clear in the videotaped interview – presented by iFL TV – that the time is essentially now for Fury to get back in the ring again. “Tyson wants to fight he wants to get out and we’re getting out as soon as we can,” he says. “Everybody wants the Anthony Joshua fight…that’s where the money fight is.” Still, Warren feels that there has to be a limit to things, even things as big and promising as a heavyweight championship fight. “At the end of the day, we can’t go on forever with this,” he says. “It gets to a stage where you say to yourself ‘where is all this?’ How much longer we got to wait?”
There is little doubt that Fury-Joshua is the biggest fight to be made in the sport right now outside of the kinds of novelty fights that have recently taken the boxing world be storm. Fans are generally curious as to who the king of the heavyweight division truly is – Fury or Joshua. Add that to the fact that both men are British, both are towering figures, and both have overcome obstacles, and the bout appears to be a big miss. “We want a binding offer,” says Warren. “I had a conversation yesterday and I hope that it will come through.”
So do many others – including Arum and Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn.
