By Charles Brun: In a pointless gesture, Anthony Joshua called out WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury on Thursday, challenging him to face him to prove who the #1 in the division. Joshua (23-1, 21 K.O.s) holds the IBF, WBA, and WBO titles, and he wants to take on Fury (30-0-1, 21 K.O.s) unify all four belts in the weight class.
It would be great for the fans IF Joshua and Fury could battle it out for heavyweight supremacy when the sport resets, but it’s not happening. By Joshua calling out Fury right now, he’s setting boxing fans up for disappointment when the fight fails to take place.
A.J. picking the wrong time to call out Fury
There’s a time and place for Joshua to be calling out Fury, and this is NOT the right moment for that to be happening. Joshua needs to be patient and recognize the commitments he and Fury both have.
Fury and Joshua are BOTH under contract to fight other opponents, and there’s NO chance of them getting out of those fights without vacating their titles. That’s not going to happen. Joshua values his straps, and he’s not going to give up any of them.
"Logically to prove yourself as No 1, I have to fight Tyson Fury. He has to fight Anthony Joshua" 👑
— Sky Sports Boxing (@SkySportsBoxing) April 16, 2020
A.J. said he would like for Kubrat Pulev and Deontay Wilder to both willingly step aside so that he can face Fury for the good of the sport. Don’t hold your breath waiting for Wilder and Pulev to do that. They’re not going to step aside just to help Joshua out. Why would they?
Joshua challenges Fury to fight him
“Come fight me. If you really want to say you’re number one, come fight me,” Joshua said. “Let’s get it on. I’ve got the rest of the belts, so it only makes sense. That proves that I’m the unified heavyweight champion of the world.
“He’s the WBC champion of the world. What that will prove, me and him fighting, is that there will be one dominant figure in the heavyweight division that will have all of the belts and become undisputed.”
It’s silly right now for Joshua to be calling out Fury because the fight has no shot at happening. Wilder made it clear in an interview this week with Premier Boxing Champions that he’s not going to step aside so that Fury can face Joshua. From that interview, Wilder shut the door on any slim hopes that Joshua and Fury will fight this year.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has talked a lot recently about his hope that Wilder would step aside so that the Joshua-Fury fight could happen at the tail end of the year. But the silence from Wilder’s side should have given Hearn a big hint that he’s not going to step out of the way.
Wilder wants/needs his trilogy fight with Fury so that he can resurrect his career because his popularity has taken a hit with his 7th round knockout loss to him from last February.
Since Wilder isn’t going t step aside in a million years, Joshua needs to focus on dealing with his IBF mandatory Pulev (28-1, 14 K.O.s) and put any thoughts about facing Fury out of his head.
Joshua chomping at the bit to face Fury
“Logically, it says to prove yourself as number one, I have to fight Tyson Fury, he has to fight Anthony Joshua. And it will be cause for a great announcement after this whole pandemic we’re facing right now,” said Joshua.
If everything falls into place with Joshua and Fury winning their next fights, then it’s possible they could battle it out in 2021. However, Joshua’s WBO mandatory Oleksandr Usyk has made it clear he wants his title shot against him after he faces Pulev.
Joshua is supposed to be fighting back to back mandatory defenses against Pulev and Usyk. Since Usyk doesn’t want to step aside so that he can face Fury, it’s probably going to be up to the World Boxing Organization to decide whether Joshua can bypass his mandatory to face Fury.
It would be better for Joshua to do the right thing and deal with his two mandatory challengers before he looks to face Fury in a fight for the undisputed heavyweight championship. I mean, it’s not like Fury is going anywhere. He’s 31-years-old, and he’s not going to retire and eat and party his way into oblivion.
Fury has a big fight against Wilder
The ‘Gypsy King’ Fury vs. Wilder 3 is a mega-fight, and it’s one that a lot of fans are looking forward to seeing. You can argue that Fury is in a much better position than Joshua is right now because he’s got a more significant clash to look forward to with his bout with Wilder.
In contrast, Joshua’s next match is against 39-year-old Pulev, and the U.K. and U.S. fans have little interest in seeing that fight. With mediocre opponent in front of him in Pulev, it’s not surprising that Joshua is trying to bypass him to face Fury next. The Pulev fight isn’t a glamorous one for Joshua, but it’s part of the drudgery of being a unified heavyweight world champion.
Joshua trying to cut corners with his profession
The problem is, Joshua wants the prestige of being a champion, but he wants to skip over part of his job to do the more exciting work. Unfortunately, Joshua can’t do that. If A.J.’s career was that of a road worker, he couldn’t skip repairing parts of the streets that he thought would be less interesting to him.
He would have to do his job no matter what. What we’re seeing here is Joshua doesn’t seem to have the right mindset that goes into being a world champion. Joshua wants to cut corners and failing to recognize that you can’t do that as a champion.
If Joshua doesn’t want to live up to the commitments of being the IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion, then he needs to vacate the belts. Then he can fight whoever he wants to without needing to make mandatory defenses. If he wants to be a champion, he’s going to need to understand that you can’t just fight whoever you please and ignore the sanctioning bodies.
