By: Sean Crose
“If I don’t know anything by Tuesday, I’m just going to move on,” Tyson Fury told Behind the Gloves this past weekend. He was referring, of course, to developments regarding his much hoped for heavyweight title match with Anthony Joshua. “It’s been a long time in the making,” the WBC and lineal heavyweight champion said. Indeed. Negotiations seem to have been going on forever. Much of the delay clearly has to do with Covid and finding the right venue for a fight of this size. Still, fans – like Fury – are growing impatient with what some see as a sad trend among boxing’s old guard.
For, while a crop of young stars like Teofimo Lopez have reached out to challenge themselves, observers have taken note that established stars like Fury and Joshua, along with Bud Crawford and Errol Spence, have yet to face off in the ring. What’s more, boxing’s past stars, such as Mike Tyson, and social media influencers, like the Paul brothers, are happily filling the void being left by some of boxing’s current ruling crop. With that being said, Fury makes it clear to Behind the Gloves that there is big reason to hope he and Joshua will indeed meet in the ring within the next few months.
“I’m pretty confident this fight is going to get made in the next few days,” he says, “because from what I’ve heard, there are some big players involved and there’s some big offers come in from very rich people and very rich countries.” Both Fury and Joshua are well known commodities, which, coupled with the intriguing potential matchup, means they are both apt to be very well paid should they agree to fight. Finding a way to make such a battle lucrative in today’s environment appears to take an almost obscene amount of time.
Still, Fury appears to be placing things in a positive light for the moment. “I’m sure that they’re going to be very good offers,” he says in the video. The truth is that Fury hasn’t fought in over a year, since he stopped Deontay Wilder in their highly publicized 2020 showdown. Joshua himself has only fought once since that period, handily besting mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev last December.
Although matters have moved at a tortoise’s pace, both Fury and Joshua have expressed what appears to be a genuine interest in meeting in the ring.