Bob Arum 95% certain Joshua vs. Fury fight happens

By Boxing News - 01/12/2021 - Comments

By Charles Brun: American promoter Bob Arum says he’s 95% certain that the heavyweight unification fight between Anthony Joshua and his fighter Tyson Fury will be taking place. Arum is hopeful that an agreement can be signed within two weeks.

Arum says he’s “papering” the contract now to get it ready to be signed by AJ and Fury, and he’s confident that the fight will be a done deal before the end of the month.  He doesn’t see anything that can stop the fight from happening, and hopefully, he’s right.

If Arum is wrong about the Joshua vs. Fury fight happening next, there will be a lot of angry boxing fans. 

The location and date will still need to be decided. Still, Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn is working on that part of the problem Hearn has targeted Singapore, Saudi Arabia, China, Dubai, and Qatar as possible locations.

 

“I don’t want to make a deadline, but I just can report that everything so far has been going splendidly, and we hope to have a signed document within the next couple of weeks,” said Arum to Sky Sports News.

“That might not provide for a site, because again, we can have a document that the fighters would have signed, and everything, and then have a mutual agreement clause of the site. We’re all on the same page, as far as I can see,” said Arum.

Image: Bob Arum 95% certain Joshua vs. Fury fight happens

Interestingly, Arum isn’t mentioning the mediation process that is going on between Fury and Deontay Wilder, which could throw a massive wrench into his plans for a Joshua vs. Fury fight in early 2021.

Instead of mentioning Wilder, Arum wants to take care of Joshua’s WBO mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk. Arum says he’ll speak to the World Boxing Organization to ask them to allow Joshua to bypass Usyk and go straight into a fight with Fury.

The problem with that strategy is that Joshua and Fury will be fighting consecutive bouts, which means that Arum would need to ask the WBO to allow Joshua to bypass Usyk twice.

Image: Bob Arum 95% certain Joshua vs. Fury fight happens

That probably won’t work. Arum said he’ll offer Usyk to fight on the Joshua vs. Fury undercard against someone else. It’s unclear how that would satisfy Usyk, though, as the money he would make fighting on an undercard will likely fall far short of what he ould get by challenging Joshua as his mandatory.

There would also be a massive risk for Usyk fighting someone else and having his mandatory status on the line. It doesn’t make a lot of sense for Usyk to agree to take an interim fight unless he’s going to receive the same kind of money he’d get in fighting Joshua.

“I’m 95 percent confident the fight happens, and I’m 100 percent confident that my guy wins, and wins by knockout,” continued Arum about the Joshua vs. Fury fight.

It’s good that Arum is certain the Joshua – Fury fight will be happening, but we’ll have to wait and see if that’s a reality.

If Fury is forced to fight Wilder in a trilogy match, that could be a real disappointment for Arum, especially if he loses. Fury is under contract for a third fight with Deontay, but he feels that the contract is up. But that’s up to the mediator to decide.

If it goes against Fury, he’ll have to delay the first fight with Joshua until the second half of this year. Of course, if Fury loses to Wilder, we likely won’t see him and Joshua fighting at all this year.