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Heavyweight title mess as Fury-Joshua fight set to be delayed


The Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua heavyweight super-fight appears to have fallen apart, just days after Fury confirmed the bout would take place on August 14.

The fight was supposed to be a done deal, Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn said as much back in March.

There has now been almost 11 months of meaningful talk about this fight, although the coronavirus pandemic meant that it was never feasible to arrange the contest at a time where paying fans could not be in a stadium to watch it. 

However, with crowds starting to return to live events, a resolution to the stalemate did appear to be close.

The fight had a date — August 14 — and a venue — Saudi Arabia — which was reported to be paying a reported site fee of $US155 million ($200 million), with each fighter earning just shy of $97 million before pay-per-view money is included.

Earlier this week, Fury announced via social media that the fight was “100 per cent on” after receiving assurances on the arrangements from Prince Khalid bin Salman Al Saud.

But then, just one day later, an arbitrator ruled that Fury had to honour his contract with Deontay Wilder by fighting him for a third time before September 15 — kyboshing any hope of that August date with Joshua.

So what is the current situation with the most highly anticipated heavyweight fight in recent years?

Joshua calls Fury a liar and ‘fraud’

Anthony Joshua called out Tyson Fury as a liar and a fraud.(

Reuters: Andrew Couldridge

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It was inevitable, given both fighters’ tendency to air their grievances online, that the argument over this latest setback would spill onto social media. 

“@Tyson_Fury the world now sees you for the fraud you are,” Joshua wrote on twitter.

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Fury, never one to back down from a twitter spat, hit back by saying the arbitration was known about by all of Joshua’s team and that it was out of his hands.

He then issued an empty challenge to Joshua to fight bare knuckle this weekend for a pot of $40 million, something Joshua unsurprisingly knocked back by saying: “I’ll slap your bald head and you’ll do nothing”.

A shirtless Tyson Fury looks to the left with his mouth open and face scrunched up with sweat beading on his head.
Tyson Fury appeared to confirm the fight just a day before being told he had to fight Wilder.(

AP: Mark J Terrill

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He then backed up his claim by posting a video of Fury observing a fist fight while ringside at the Canelo Álvarez-Billy Joe Saunders fight last weekend, saying “a barrier held you back, not even a bouncer”.

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Fury replied by calling Joshua a “dosser”, a “bum” and a “bottlejob”, but tellingly added that he would “smoke Wilder first then you’ll get yours as well” seemingly confirming that the Wilder fight has to happen and ending talk of unification for the time being.

Will Fury have to fight Wilder?

It seems that Fury will have to take on Wilder before he challenges Joshua.

This appears to be on Bob Arum, Fury’s promoter’s mind as well — not least because he has provisionally booked the new Las Vegas stadium for a fight on July 24.

Occasionally, when a fighter is due a mandatory fight that needs to be delayed in favour of a better fight, step-aside money is paid to a fighter to sweeten the deal.

Fury said that Wilder’s step-aside price was $26 million, adding: “looks like I will have to crack his skull again”.

Malik Scott, Wilder’s new trainer, said in an Instagram post that Wilder has “no interest in step-aside money” and that he “wants blood”.

Any fight between the pair will come with a tremendous amount of ill feeling.

Deontay Wilder wears a large, black, spiked helmet which is covered in sequins and lights.
Deontay Wilder is known for his elaborate headwear, and now he wants his heavyweight crown back.(

Reuters: Steve Marcus

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After Fury forced Wilder’s corner to throw in the towel in their second meeting, Wilder gave an increasingly bizarre list of reasons as to why he lost, including that his elaborate costume was too heavy, that Fury’s gloves were illegal and that his corner was against him.

Now, with Wilder standing between Fury and a shot a fellow Englishman Joshua — not to mention a monstrous payday — there will be enough bad blood to set up a thrilling conclusion to the trilogy between the pair.

What will Anthony Joshua do?

Hearn said he had “no plan B” in relation to another opponent for Joshua, putting all his efforts into securing a fight with Fury.

However, after giving Fury’s camp a week to resolve their situation with Wilder, he admitted he had started to look into a contest between Joshua and the WBO’s mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk.

Anthony Joshua lands an upper cut to the face of Kubrat Pulev
Anthony Joshua owns three of boxing’s major belts.(

Pool via AP: Andrew Couldridge

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Usyk, who has an 18-0 record and was undisputed cruiserweight champion between 2018 and 2019 before stepping up to heavyweight, is a tremendous talent, but has only fought twice at heavyweight.

He beat relatively unknown American Chazz Witherspoon in 2019, before earning a unanimous decision over Derek Chisora in his last outing in October.

Joshua has already accounted for one mandatory challenger in the IBF’s Kubrat Pulev, who he knocked out in the ninth round in December.

Will Joshua vs Fury happen?

It could still happen in August, although that’s a long shot now, meaning a lot will depend on what happens in their interim fights.

Joshua will do well not to under-estimate Usyk, who, like Joshua, won a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in the heavyweight division. Joshua was the super heavyweight champion.

Usyk is also rated as one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world, so will provide a stern test for the reigning champ.

Wilder was well beaten by Fury last time they met, but the Bronze Bomber has the best knockout percentage of any active heavyweight.

Tyson Fury (right) stands over Deontay Wilder after knocking him down in their heavyweight boxing bout.
Tyson Fury battered Deontay Wilder in their last meeting.(

AP: Isaac Brekken

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The 35-year-old has a record of 42 wins from 44 fights, 41 of which came by knockout, including 20 in the first round.

The only fighter he has met and failed to beat is Fury, who earned a draw in their first meeting (although plenty had Fury down as victor, despite a tremendous knockdown in the 12th round) and beat Wilder in his last fight.

As one of the most devastating punchers in the history of the heavyweight division, Wilder is very much in the running to ruin the all-British party.

Why this fight would have been so special

Anthony Joshua and Kubrat Pulev stare at each other with a man in a white shirt between them
Anthony Joshua is not amused at the delay in his possible unification fight.(

Pool via AP: Andrew Couldridge

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This unification fight was so highly anticipated because it is so rare that they come up.

For those new to boxing, there are four officially recognised boxing governing bodies.

The World Boxing Association (WBA), the World Boxing Council (WBC), the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and the World Boxing Organization (WBO).

There are other minor organisations, such as the International Boxing Organization (IBO) currently held by Joshua, but they are still not considered major prizes as such and tend to just bubble along away from the limelight.

But getting the four champions together to fight is tough, and incredibly rare.

In the 33 years since the WBO was established in 1988, there have only ever been six fights where all four belts have been on the line — although it has only been the last 15 or so years that the WBO belt was considered an essential part of the collection.

Only four fighters, Terence Crawford, Jermain Taylor, Bernard Hopkins and Oleksandr Usyk, have ever held all four belts simultaneously.

Terence Crawford lands a blow on Jeff Horn
Terence Crawford, left, who ended Jeff Horn’s short reign as WBO world welterweight champion in 2018, is one of four fighters to hold all four belts at once.(

AP: John Locher

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That exclusive list of fights will increase to seven this weekend, when Scottish fighter Josh Taylor meets José Ramírez at super-lightweight.

An eighth is also on the cards for later this year, when Jermell Charlo and Brian Castaño meet in Tim Tszyu’s super-welterweight division.

The last unified champion in the blue riband class was Lennox Lewis in 1999/2000.

Never before have all four belts been on the line in the heavyweight division.

Unified champions don’t tend to stay unified for long.

Each organisation has a mandatory challenger and can strip its belt from the holder should they fail to meet their mandatory within a certain time limit.

With all the politics that comes with having four major sanctioning bodies trying to corral a myriad of fighters and their promoters into certain fights — especially with the monumental amount of money on the line — getting these big fights over the line is tough, to say the least.

Nethertheless, boxing fans demand to see the best fight the best, and this delay, even if it is only temporary, risks alienating those supporters.



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