By Scott Gilfoid: British heavyweights Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua have agreed to a two-fight deal for 2021. Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn announced the agreement, but they still need to figure out the dates and the location for the two matches.
Unfortunately, it’s still VERY premature for IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs) and Fury to be celebrating their fight.
Fury is be looking past his next opponent Deontay Wilder, which could prove to be a mistake on his part. Wilder might be Fury’s Waterloo waiting to happen. It’s classic Hearn to be getting ahead of himself in scheduling fights far off into the future, but it could be a disaster waiting to happen.
What happens if Wilder obliterates Fury and leaves him face down on the canvas in their trilogy match? What happens with the two Joshua vs. Fury fights then? Does Hearn still have them take place with Fury coming off of a lousy knockout loss?
The first Joshua vs. Fury fight of the two-fight deal is planned for the summer of 2021
Dillian Whyte a HUGE obstacle to Joshua-Fury
The obstacles that stand in the way of Fury vs. Joshua in 2021
- Deontay Wilder – signed for trilogy match with Fury
- Kubrat Pulev – Joshua’s IBF mandatory
- Dillian Whyte – WBC mandatory challenger. He’s due to a title shot by February 2021
Whyte (27-1, 18 KOs) could be the biggest problem that stands in the way of Fury fighting Joshua twice next year. The World Boxing Council has promised Dillian that he’ll be given a title shot against the WBC champion by February 2021. As such, unless the WBC changes their mind, the WBC champion, be it Fury or Wilder, will need to defend against Whyte by early next year.
Fury’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank spoke of the WBC potentially making ‘The Gypsy King’ the Franchise champion if Whyte insists on getting his mandatory title shot in early 2021. But as of now, that hasn’t happened, so you have to assume that Whyte will be fighting for the WBC belt by February 2021.
Unless the injured Joshua wants to vacate his IBF strap, he still must defend that belt first against mandatory Kubrat Pulev (28-1, 14 KOs).
As we recently found out with Joshua, there are no guaranteed wins for him. His chin and his stamina are too fragile for him to look passed the 39-year-old Bulgarian Pulev.
Deontay Wilder = significant threat to Joshua vs. Fury
There’s also the problem that WBC heavyweight champion Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) has in still needing to defeat Deontay Wilder in their third contest this year. Although Fury knocked out Wilder in the seventh round last February, you can’t bank on him being able to do that again.
Going straight at Wilder worked for him in that fight, but it may not in the trilogy match. Some of the right-hands from the KO artist Wilder that narrowly missed Fury’s big lantern jaw in their second fight would have plainly put him to sleep had they landed.
“It’s fair to say that, in principle, both guys have agreed to that fight. Two fights,” said Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn Sky Sports Boxing.
“We have the Dillian Whyte mandatory which is due before this fight. There is a big period of time where Whyte should get his shot at the title. That’s important to us,” said Hearn.
It’s got to be important that Hearn deals with the Whyte situation first because he’s due a title shot in early 2021. With the way things are now, Whyte won’t be getting his title shot against WBC champion Fury until 2022, if the Joshua-Fury two-fight deal plays out.
At 32, Whyte is no spring chicken, and if he doesn’t fight for the WBC strap until 2022, he’ll be 34 by then. In Whyte’s last fight against Mariusz Wach, he looked like someone in his 40s, laboring to unimpressive 10 round unanimous decision win. Heck, the 39-year-old Wach looked younger than Whyte, and him slurring afterward.
Fury talks Joshua two-fight deal being agreed
“I just got off the phone with Daniel Kinnerhan and he just informed me that the biggest fight in British boxing history has just been agreed,” said Fury on his Instagram about a match between him and Joshua.
“He got this done, a two-fight deal. Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua next year. One problem, I’ve to smash Deontay Wilder’s face right in the next fight, and then we go into the Joshua fight next year.
“So there we are. The Gypsy King vs. AJ, it’s on for next year, but there’s a hurdle in the road, ‘The Bronze Bomber,’ AK ‘The Knockout King.’ I will get on to him and knock him the spark out, and then we go onto the big fights. A big thank you, Dan, for getting this deal over the line,” said Fury.
This is how it starts. You get two fighters in Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua that ASSUME that they’re going to win their next interim fights against Deontay and Pulev, and then blows up in their faces with one or both of them losing.
Tyson and Joshua assuming they’ll win their next fights
Fury, 31, shouldn’t count his chickens before they hatch. Nothing is assured for him fighting Joshua at all in 2021, let alone facing him twice. The talented Deontay Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) still looms out there with upset on his mind.
Do you think Wilder is going to take this news of a Fury vs. Joshua fight without being insulted? Nah, Wilder is going to be furious at hearing about this because it means that Fury is counting as him as a win already, and not taking him seriously as an opponent.
In hindsight, it would have been better for Fury to wait until after the trilogy match with Deontay before he started talking about putting together a two-fight deal with Joshua.
Putting out an announcement right now about the Fury vs. Joshua two-fight deal is the biggest insult you can make to Deontay, and he’s going to be looking to blast Tyson to smithereens when he gets inside the ring with him in 2020.
