By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury’s promoter Bob Arum hopes to set up the mega-bout between him and IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in the UK rather than in a foreign country in 2022.
In a sidenote, Arum didn’t mention the very real possibility that Joshua and Fury may lose their next fights, which would sink any chances of this hypothetical fight between them.
Joshua is defending against Oleksandr Usyk on September 25th, and that’s going to be a nightmare for him. Let’s put it this way. If Joshua loses to Usyk, his care may end up going downhill right away.
Ultimately, there will be the inevitable rematch with Joshua trying to avenge his loss. Joshua will be steaming into the equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle by taking on Usyk a second time, and boy, it could end badly for him.
We saw what happened to British heavyweight David Price when he attempted to avenge his loss to Tony Thompson in July 2013. Price got knocked out a second time and his career was never the same. Could Joshua suffer the same fate? Yep, he could.
If it works out well for Joshua as we saw with his rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr in December 2019, he can move on to face the winner of the Fury vs. Deontay Wilder trilogy.
Fury is taking on a healthy rejuvenated Deontay Wilder, who will be hunting for a trophy scalp on October 9th in their trilogy match in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Given how badly Fury has aged in the year and a half since their previous fight in February 2020, Wilder has a very good chance of winning.
Fury looks atrophied and five years older now than he did last year. It’s unclear what happened to Fury’s muscles that he’d packed on last year.
Top Rank promoter Arum says he’s not certain when next year Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs) and the WBC belt-holder Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) will fight.
He notes that Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn mentioned February as a likely month for the fight, but he’s not sure if it’ll happen then. It could be anytime next year.
Arum doesn’t care about money
In a bit of a shocker, Arum says he doesn’t care about money for the fight, he just wants to stage it in the UK.
My guess is Joshua and particularly Fury DO care about money, and they’re not going to be onboard with staging the fight in the UK if it means they’ll both be making considerably less.
“My hope is that the fight goes to the UK. I don’t care what the money is. Both fighters owe the UK fans this tremendous event at Wembley or Cardiff, rather than taking it to a foreign country,” said Bob Arum to Sky Sports.
If Fury and Joshua can make more green by staging their fight in the Middle East, they’re likely going to opt for that. Likewise, Hearn isn’t going to want to shortchange Joshua and Fury by staging the fight in the UK if it means both fighters earn millions less.
This is prizefighting, and those two champions WILL want to maximize the money that can make from their fight, especially if this is the only time they ever fight.
It’s taken AJ and Fury this long in their respective careers before they’re finally on the verge of fighting. This might be the only time you can get these two proud fighters to agree to fight.
If they do fight, I highly doubt there will be a rematch because it’ll be too much of a maze to try and get the match negotiated a second time.
You can’t put a timeline on Joshua vs. Fury
“The problem with Eddie? He cannot stop talking,” said Arum. “When he says February? He is saying the fight will happen next year which is clearly correct.
“Joshua is fighting in September, we are fighting in October,” Arum continued. “Obviously [Joshua – Fury] will take place next year. But February, March, or April? That remains to be seen,” said Arum.
Yeah, Arum is 100% correct in saying that there’s NO way of knowing when or if the Joshua vs. Fury fight will take place in 2022. Heck, it might not happen at all, and here Hearn is babbling about it taking place in February.
Man, what is he thinking? Considering that Fury has never shown any desire to get in the ring with Joshua, it’s delusional on Hearn’s part to start talking about when the fight will take place between them.