By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury is threatening to bail on the Anthony Joshua fight if he doesn’t hear anything from his team today in a deadline that he set on Monday.
With the fight with Joshua now on the verge of being done, Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) is starting to sound like he’d getting cold feet, perhaps realizing what could happen to him.
‘The Gypsy King’ says he’ll “move on” if he doesn’t hear an update on the site offers for the venue and date of the mega-heavyweight unification clash against IBF/WBA/WBO champion Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs).
A date that is being talked about for the Joshua-Fury clash is July 24th in Saudi Arabia potentially. However, AJ’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing still needs to make it official.
AJ ready to start training camp
Joshua seems to be confident that the fight with Fury will be coming off, as he gave an update of some positive news on Monday, saying that he’s lacing up his boots and getting ready to start training.
“‘Positive news this evening! I’m lacing up my running boots rn (right now)!!! @258MGT and @Matchroomboxing have received the first OFFICIAL offer to host the Undisputed Heavyweight Championship Of The WORLD! I will be victorious God willing! No place to hide now! I’M COMING,” said Joshua on social media on Monday.
Let’s assume for a second that Fury DOES choose to walk away from the fight with Joshua.
If Fury bails on the fight, there will be a tremendous backlash from the boxing public, with fans saying the 6’9″ WBC belt-holder lost his nerve and didn’t have the courage to stick it out, take his loss like a brave soldier.
In addition to all the criticism, Fury will take, he’ll need to get back in the ring and start fighting quality opposition.
The 32-year-old Fury won’t be able to trot out Sefer Seferi or Tom Schwarz as his opponent and expect that to go over well with his boxing fans, Top Rank and ESPN.
They’re going to want a meat & potatoes type of opponent for Fury’s next fight if he chooses to back out of the Joshua mega-clas.
Fury talking about bailing
“If I don’t hear anything by Tuesday, I’m just going to move on because it’s been a long time in the making,” said Fury to Behind The Gloves in making it clear he’s ready to skedaddle.
“It was June last year when I did that video when I said I had agreed on terms with Joshua. Like we both agreed to fight each other, but I’ve got to fight Wilder first. That was a year ago,” said Fury.
Well, the fight couldn’t have happened between Joshua and Fury last year because AJ had his commitment to his IBF mandatory Kubrat Pulev.
He didn’t want to give up his IBF strap, and Pulev had already been waiting for ages for his mandated title shot.
Fury could have kept busy last year and defended his WBC strap against his mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte if he’d wanted to.
It’s not as if he didn’t have options galore for a big fight, and he also could have given Deontay Wilder a rematch. Of course, those would have been risky fights for Fury, and there’s a good chance he would have lost.
“Now is the time to make this fight. Now. The summer,” said Eddie Hearn to the Daily Mail. “We may not get this opportunity again. Both guys accept that and are ready for the challenge.”