Heavyweight contender Anthony Joshua is not exactly sold on WBC champion Tyson Fury’s most recent approach to make a September showdown at Wembley Stadium in London.
On Friday, Fury took to social media to reveal that ‘draft contract’ was sent to Joshua for a September fight.
Fury has been out of the ring since December of last year, when he battered and stopped Derek Chisora in their trilogy fight.
Joshua fought last month, as he snapped a two-fight losing streak with a twelve round unanimous decision over Jermaine Franklin.
The plan for Joshua, at the moment, is to have an interim-fight in August before a potential fight with Deontay Wilder on a date in December in Saudi Arabia.
Eddie Hearn, promoter for Joshua, would clarify that a fight contract had never been issued, but Fury’s co-promoter, George Warren of Queensberry, contacted him to begin discussions for a big domestic showdown.
The two sides are talking, but the Hearn indicates that his boxer’s layout for 2023 is still the same – to fight in August and December.
Fury wants to fight in the summer, but he’s having issues locking down a proper opponent. After failing to secure a July dance partner for Wembley, there has been talk of Fury headlining a stadium show in Australia against Demsey McKean or Jai Opetaia.
According to Hearn, Joshua’s two-fight plan is coming together quickly.
“I spoke to AJ [about Fury’s approach], AJ laughed and said ‘isn’t he fighting Jai Opetaia, or Demsey McKean, or Jon Jones,’ I said ‘no, they’re telling us they want to fight you, but we’re fighting in August and September,’ that’s our plan,” Hearn told IFL TV.
“I’ll go through the process and see how real this is. I believe George Warren, I think they’re in a really difficult spot, Tyson Fury. He wants big money fights and AJ is the money fight for him, but no back and forth, just ‘we’ll talk’. Right now our plan remains the same, August and Deontay Wilder in December so we’ll see what happens in Saudi Arabia this week. That’s our plan, that’s what we’re moving forward with this week, if we can’t make that happen we’ll 100% look at the Tyson Fury fight.
“We’re being told that deal with Saudi Arabia is on the verge of being closed. But we will see. We are not closing the door to the Tyson Fury fight, we are just making sure that Anthony Joshua’s career goes according to plan and isn’t messed around by other people.”