By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury has given superstar Anthony Joshua a deadline of today to accept his offer of November 26th or December 3rd, 60-40 split, and 50-50 rematch clause.
For Joshua to agree to Fury’s deadline of today would arguably be humiliating to him. If that’s Fury’s objective to try and embarrass Joshua & put him in his place, I’m afraid it’s going to fail miserably, and he’s going to look stupid for having used such a foolish tactic.
Presumably, if Joshua doesn’t accept the deal from Fury, he’ll move on and face someone else in the UK for one of these two dates.
Given the crude, ham-handed, hardball tactics that Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs) is using to attempt to negotiate with Joshua, I’d say the chances of this fight happening are slim & none.
The way that Fury is talking & setting a deadline, he appears to be confused about who he’s negotiating with.
Using take it or leave it offers & deadlines are something that would work for Fury if he were negotiating with a simple ham-&-egger contender who had zero popularity and no negotiating pull.
But this is Joshua, and this is the wrong way to negotiate with a fighter of this magnitude unless the objective is to get him to reject the offer, which is likely to happen.
“This is not a mandatory defense. This is Tyson being magnanimous, giving This is Tyson giving AJ a route back,” said Frank Warren to iFL TV. “What he wants to make sure of is there’s no problems for the Usyk fight in February or March, and he needs a decent run-up to that.
“Yeah, today,” said Warren when asked if there’s a deadline for when Joshua must accept the fight. “Let’s get it done. You’ve got today to do it.”
I think it’s safe to say Joshua & his promoter Eddie Hearn will likely reject the deadline straight away and move on unless Fury changes the date to December 17th and agrees to the 60-40 rematch split that they want.
“It’s 60-40, pick one of those two dates, and it’s 50-50 to the rematch,” Warren continued. For a guy [Joshua] coming off two losses, it’s a no-brainer.
“Everyone is acting like AJ is an undefeated fighter, and this is a mandatory defense. Tyson is giving him an opportunity to get back into the big time,” said Warren.
