By Barry Holbrook: Anthony Joshua shouldn’t take the fight with Tyson Fury, says Gareth A Davies, because it would be “unwise” for him to do so given his career situation after his two losses to Oleksandr Usyk.
Fury’s deadline of yesterday has come and gone, and given his silence on the matter; it indicates that Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs) and his promoter Eddie Hearn have decided to reject his offer.
Whatever chance there was in making the fight, it went to pieces after Fury chose to use hardball negotiating tactics with his Thursday deadline and his decision to reject Joshua’s request of December 17th and insist on November 26th or December 3rd.
If Fury is smart, he’ll learn from this and make sure he doesn’t employ the same crude negotiating tactics with Joshua in the future. Joshua isn’t going to bow down to Fury’s deadlines and switching of dates.
“It doesn’t make sense. It’s an endgame fight for him to face Fury in December, even if Fury agrees to December 17th,” said Gareth A Davies to Pro Boxing Fans about Anthony Joshua.
“It doesn’t make sense. He [Joshua] needs to rebuild and go and knock out a couple of people, have a couple of good performances, fight Dillian Whyte and fight Deontay Wilder, maybe.
“The Fury fight will always be there. There’s not enough time for him [Joshua] to get ready. It’s very unwise to take it now because if he did lose or did get knocked out, it’s very difficult to see where he goes from there.
“Where he actually goes from there, and he has new paymasters at DAZN. They’ve offered him a multi-fight, multi-year deal. I’m talking business here; I’m talking from his perspective. If I was his promoter, I would be saying, ‘Stay away.’
“Why isn’t Usyk fighting Fury in December? Because he’s not ready because he needs time, and Joshua needs time. He needs to rebuild, in my view.
“There’s the other side where people say, ‘It’s his chance to be a three-weight world champion straight away. He doesn’t have to rebuild.’ It doesn’t work like that, I’m afraid. I think it’s very unwise to take that fight right now.
“I think there’s a one or two percent chance that fight is going to get made over the next 24 hours. I cannot see it,” said Davies.
