By Charles Brum: Tyson Fury’s promoter Bob Arum says they’ll be exchanging contracts with heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn this week.
This will be the first draft of the contract that we’ll be working on to get the AJ vs. Fury fight done for May or June in a still to be determined foreign country.
Arum can’t afford to move slowly with the negotiations between IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs) and WBC champ Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs), as they plan on fighting twice in 2021.
For that reason, they can’t let the negotiations drag out too long because there are other fighters waiting for their shot at the winner.
All four titles expected to be at stake
WBO mandatory Oleksandr Usyk wants his fight against Joshua, and he’s not going to wait for the rest of his life while Joshua and Fury go back and forth with the neverending negotiations.
It appears that all four titles will be on the line for the Fury vs. Joshua fight, which will make them both happy as well as promoter Hearn. They want this fight to be for the undisputed heavyweight championship.
“I talked to Eddie [Hearn of Matchroom Boxing] yesterday. Eddie, with the Joshua people, will have the first draft of the contract to us on Tuesday,” said Arum to Talk Sport.
“And then I will circulate it to Frank [Warren], to Tyson and to the various lawyers.
“We’ll then get back to Eddie with our comments and I really believe that this is pretty much a no-brainer because everybody are professionals and want this to happen.
“So I think shortly we’ll be able to tie this up and then jointly select the site,” said Arum.
It’s a real shame that the organizers of the AJ vs. Gypsy King fight won’t stage it in the U.S or the UK. Staging that fight overseasons is disturbing, giving the appearance that Joshua, Fury, and the promoters are abandoning the fans that have supported the two fighters all these years.
It would be a class move on the fighter’s parts if they were willing to take less money in order to fight in front of their loyal fans.
Just going for the money and leaving the fans behind, it’s disappointing to see. For most boxing fans, they won’t care that the already fabulously wealthy Joshua and Fury are looking to increase their net worth by squeezing out a little extra dough by taking the fight abroad, but it still rubs one the wrong way seeing that happen.
The fans are like family, and seeing them left behind by the two fighters is sad.
Joshua vs. Fury winner will be the undisputed champion
Even if the Joshua – Fury fight winner is only briefly the undisputed champion for a few days before the WBO belt is vacated, it’s about bragging rights.
It’s also about using the “undisputed championship” talk as a marketing tool to hook in the casual boxing fans that might be moved by that kind of talk.
You can argue that for 99% of the population, the talk about the Joshua vs. Fury fight being for the undisputed championship will go in one ear and out the other. They’ll tune that nonsense out, and just focus on the fight being made and about who they think will win.
The stat freaks will love the undisputed championship angle for the fight, but for most boxing fans, they’ll see Fury and Joshua and two champions, both huge, looking to prove who’s the top dog in the heavyweight division.
Hopefully, for the sake of the average fan, Hearn doesn’t drone on too much about the Joshua-Fury fight being for the undisputed championship. That’s noise static don’t need to hear.
If Matchroom Boxing promoter Hearn wants to sell the fight to the boxing world, they’ll focus on trash-talking theatrics, and leave behind all the bragging about trivial stuff that won’t stick in the minds of the fans.
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The truth is, the winner of the two Joshua vs. Fury fights will still need to beat these fighters to show they’re the #1 heavyweight:
- Joe Joyce
- Oleksandr Usyk
- Daniel Dubois
- Deontay Wilder
- Andy Ruiz Jr