By Tim Royner: Having failed to rip the title away from WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder last weekend, unbeaten former unified champion Tyson Fury is now targeting a fight against IBF/WBA/WBO champion Anthony Joshua for a clash in 2019. Fury (27-0-1, 19 KOs) called out the unbeaten 28-year-old Joshua (22-0, 21 KOs) on Monday morning with hopes of luring him into the ring for a big British bash in the UK. However, if Fury’s last purse request of a 60-40 split in his favor still holds true, it’s highly unlikely he’ll get any nibbles on his offer from Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom. Joshua still doesn’t have an opponent for his April 13 fight at Wembley Stadium in London, England.
If Hearn wants to sell out that old stadium, then putting together a fight between Joshua and Fury would be the best way of accomplishing that goal. The British boxing public have shown little desire to see a rematch between Joshua and Whyte. Hearn is counting on the interest going up through the roof if Whyte can beat journeyman Dereck Chisora in an impressive fashion this month in their fight on December 22 on Sky Box Office, but there’s no guarantee that will happen. Whyte was arguably beaten by Chisora two years ago in 2016 in a fight that he won by a controversial 12 round split decision in London. Whyte is coming off of a controversial fight against Joseph Parker in which he likely would have lost if the fight had been officiated by a referee that was a little more alert, and keeping an eye on the action. Whyte was given credit for a knockdown in the 2nd round after head-butting Parker. There was a lot of fouling by Whyte that he got away with.
“We need to give Britain the biggest fight in British boxing history,” Fury said to Good Morning Britain at @GMB. “That’s me and Joshua. The country wants it, I want it. The only people who don’t seem to want it is their team. Let’s get it on, let’s give the fans what they want and have a real battle.”
At best, Hearn will likely offer Fury a 60-40 split in Joshua’s favor. At worst, Fury could be looking at a 65-35 split, which would put him in the same neighborhood as Joseph Parker for what he got in fighting Joshua last March. That would still put Fury well and above what Hearn has been offering Wilder with his flat fee offers, but it would worlds apart from the 60-40 split that Tyson asked for to take the fight with Joshua.
It’s interesting how quickly Fury, 30, has given up on a rematch against Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KOs) following their fight last Saturday night on Showtime pay-per-view at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The fight was ruled a 12 round split draw. Fury’s chances of a big comeback victory imploded in the last half of the fight when he was knocked down twice by the 6’7″ Wilder. The 12th round knockdown was especially brutal to watch as the 6’9″ Fury fell over like a tall tree, falling back first and coming to rest with both eyes closed. Fury looked like he was out cold for several moments. The fact that the referee didn’t immediately halt the fight at seeing Fury’s condition was seen as an odd move on his part, considering that many referees would have halted the fight at seeing a fighter knocked down like that. The boxing public aren’t calling it a long count that was given to Fury, but they do wonder why the referee didn’t stop the fight at that point. It looked like an old fashioned fight from a bygone era with the way the referee stood and waited to see if Fury would revive before he made a decision to halt the fight. Fury somehow got up and survived the round, but it was too late for him. He’d been knocked down for the second time in the fight, and that prevented him from getting the victory. Although Fury complained bitterly afterwards that he should have been given the decision, the facts speak for themselves with the way he was knocked down twice by Wilder.
Failing to get the ‘W’ against Wilder puts Fury in an especially bad negotiating position for a fight against Joshua. Fury can certainly try and get the fight against Joshua, but his position is not a strong one to get the fight given his 12 round draw against Joshua. Hearn is a smart promoter, and he’ll know that this isn’t the right time to match Joshua against a fighter that failed in his last fight against Wilder. Hearn might offer Fury a fight against one of his Matchroom heavyweights Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller, Dillian Whyte or Dereck Chisora. Right now, Joshua has better things going for him against heavyweights that have looked good recently in Whyte or Miller. Wilder has the prestigious World Boxing Council belt, and that’s the strap that Fury badly needs for him to negotiate on an even playing field with Joshua.
Without the WBC belt, Fury would come into the negotiations with Joshua as just another challenger, which means Hearn would likely play it to the hilt by starting out Joshua-Fury negotiations with a lowly 80-20 offer, and then work from there in small increments upwards. If Fury has months to negotiate and is willing to sit on the shelf for a long period of time, he can probably hammer out a deal with Joshua, but it obviously won’t be the 60-40 split that he craves. Fury needs the WBC belt, and he also needs a high amount of PPV buys on Showtime for the Wilder fight. The PPV totals for the Wilder vs. Fury fight will take time before they’re released. It might take weeks, and possibly even a month. Fury can strengthen his hand in the Joshua negotiations if he agrees to fight one of Hearn’s Matchroom fighters. Even fighting Dave Allen would help Fury. If he could blast through Allen, then he could face Whyte or Miller, and earn the fight against Joshua the old fashioned way rather than backing into the fight following a 12 round draw against Wilder.
Joshua can make a lot of money fighting Fury even if he agrees to a 50-50 purse split with him. There’s obviously a lot more money that can be made by Joshua and Hearn if they wait until he beats a good heavyweight like Wilder, Luis Ortiz, Whyte or Miller. It’s a gamble though. Fury was knocked down twice by Wilder last Saturday night. If Fury’s punch resistance is gone from those two hard knockdowns, then he’s going to be easy pickings by Whyte, Miller, Ortiz and Wilder. A rematch against Wilder would be risky at this point for Fury. Wilder knows how to hurt Fury after learning how to land on him, and he’ll have an easier time adapting to his herky-jerky upper body movement that he was using last Saturday.
Hearn will make it difficult for Fury to negotiate with him by using Joshua’s three world titles as a leveraging tool to try and get Fury, the challenger, to agree to a far smaller percentage that he wants. Unless Fury is willing to walk away from the negotiations, he may need to swallow his pride and accept a much smaller split than he otherwise would have accepted if he’d beaten Wilder.