Tyson Fury is having trouble getting a fight with Anthony Joshua over the line, so why not fight the man who beat his Brit rival?
The situation came to a head with Fury and Joshua on Monday and Tuesday as a deadline to make the fight expired.
The reignition of negotiations later in the week proved unfruitful. Fury’s promoter Frank Warren bemoaned the deadlock in his latest column with The Daily Star.
Tyson Fury wants AJ
Joshua’s team seems reluctant to agree to face Fury after suffering a second defeat in a row last month. The Saudi Arabia reverse means Joshua could be staring at three of four losses if they sign a two-fight Fury deal.
“Actions speak louder than words,” said Warren.
“The plan has always been that Tyson fights in the UK before the end of the year. Don’t forget he originally wanted to fight in November but pushed the date back to accommodate AJ.
“We can’t keep moving him back, the main goal is the Undisputed fight with Usyk, which is mooted for February, and he needs time between fights to recover.
“Conversations with the other side have been amicable, but they’ve been slower than they should have been, especially this week.
“There just hasn’t seemed to be any urgency from Joshua to get it done. When deals take longer than they should finalize, you start to question if they really want it.
“The TV companies – BT Sport and DAZN – have been brilliant, and deals in principle were in play.
“Tickets, manifests, and seating charts were drawn up, and the venue, everything was ready.
Radio silence
“This week, the last issue we were told was Joshua said he doesn’t like the fact we have the final say if we can’t agree on something. So we said, let’s put an independent person in the middle to have the final say on any disputed matters. But nothing came back on the proposal.
“As of writing this today, that’s where we are. There’s still radio silence, still no returned calls or responses to emails or updates.
“They’ve had the contract for 15 days. I thought everybody wanted to get this done, but now I’m unsure.
“I remember when Shelly Finkel sent us the contract for Tyson to take on Deontay Wilder in the first fight of their epic trilogy.
“The contract went back and forth a few times and was signed in 48 hours!”
So if Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn are proving too difficult, why doesn’t Fury begin talks with Oleksandr Usyk?
Time is running out on getting a huge undisputed champion bout over the line for December. Therefore, allow Fury to have his knock over against Mahmoud Charr or Derek Chisora. But open talks with Usyk now.
Why won’t Tyson Fury fight Oleksandr Usyk?
Fury vs Usyk at Wembley Stadium would be massive between April and June next year. The first undisputed heavyweight championship match-up for over two decades since Lennox Lewis vs Evander Holyfield.
Usyk is up for it and begs the question of why Fury won’t negotiate with the Ukrainian master.
“The thing is that everyone is expecting Usyk-Fury to fight for the undisputed championship, which hasn’t occurred in the heavyweight division,” Usyk said on his social media channel.
“Despite his toughness and how he is generally described, he is afraid.”
If Usyk would watch Fury vs Joshua, he joked: “No, I will support neither of them. I won’t even watch this fight.”
But despite that jovial behavior towards a British battle, Usyk is clearly hurt by Fury’s lack of contact even to sound out a fight.
“I want to outbox Fury now,” Usyk explained. “The championship unification is far better and more important than just a fight or a title defense.
“I don’t want to work and box that much just for the defense itself. There’s much more than that, and I can achieve it [undisputed].”
Three windows
On his career moving forward, Usyk said Fury has limited windows of opportunity. Usyk wants to set aside one of those for Canelo Alvarez.
“After my last bout [when dominating Anthony Joshua], I can fight in my top form three times more at best.
“With Fury, Canelo, and the farewell fight at Olympiyski. Yes, with Canelo. He wanted to fight with me.
“But it will be a ‘freak fight,’ just to earn money,” he concluded.
It’s anyone’s guess why Fury doesn’t seem open to facing a man he labels “a middleweight.” Instead, he wants to battle the man who Usyk beat twice and demoralized at his lowest ebb.
If that doesn’t happen, Fury is happy to fight Charr or Chisora in nonsensical match-ups.
Maybe someone should give “The Gypsy King” a nudge in the right direction?
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