By Scott Gilfoid: Anthony Joshua says he’s going to “smoke” Tyson Fury if they meet up in 2022. Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs) hopes he and Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) can win their respective next fights so they can meet up next year in a mega-fight that should have happened last August.
Few fans would give Fury much of a chance against Joshua because his fighting style is made to order for AJ. Even if Fury were to try and crowd Joshua, maul, and hit him with rabbit punches as he did with Deontay Wilder, it’s not going to work.
Joshua loves that kind of fighting, and he’ll gladly get in the mud with Fury and start slopping around.
Fury missed his window
Joshua is a much fighter on the inside and he’ll make easy work of Fury, perhaps even easier than his last fight with Kubrat Pulev.
I hate to say it but Fury is starting to look middle-aged with a dad’s body, and he may have missed his window for beating Joshua.
Maybe if Fury had fought Joshua immediately after defeating Wilder last year in February, he would have had a decent chance of beating him.
But now after a year and a half of aging and sitting around, flapping his gums about his big victory, Fury is going to be easy pickings for Joshua.
Fury needs to defeat Deontay Wilder on October 9th in their trilogy match in Las Vegas, whereas Joshua has an equally tough title defense against his WBO mandatory Oleksandr Usyk on September 25th.
Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) could surprise Fury by knocking him cold again, evaporating his dreams of that magical payday fight with Joshua.
AJ looking past Usyk
Joshua talking up a fight with Fury is obviously a clear example of him failing to have learned from his first fight with Andy Ruiz Jr.
AJ is one of those types of fighters that is always looking ahead rather than at the fighter in front of him, and that’s why there’s a chance he’ll lose to Oleksandr Usyk on September 25th.
There’s a good chance that Joshua and Fury will both go crashing down in flames, and they’ll need to make a big decision whether to try and avenge their losses or focus on meeting up anyway next year.
If AJ and Tyson focus on just the business angle, they can walk away from a loss and meet next year with no titles on the line.
“I truly believe I’m going to smoke that guy, and he’s going to come back and back himself,” said Joshua to iFL TV. “We’ll find out when we fight next.
“I’ve got this geezer behind me first and foremost, and he’s got his guy in Wilder. And at some stage, I think the fight [with Fury] will happen. Why not?
“Whichever one wins,” said Joshua on who he prefers to fight between Fury and Wilder. “Do they want me to fight Fury? I’m happy either way.
Yeah, Usyk is going to take advantage of Joshua’s overconfidence by wearing him out and stopping him on September 25th.
Joshua is just too cocky at this point, and he needs a little reminder that he’s still the same vulnerable fighter that Ruiz knocked out two years ago.
Actually, another loss will be a good thing for Joshua because it’ll get him off his high horse, and put his feet on the ground. His ego is clearly running amok and needs to be put in check.
“I love boxing of the old school. In this day and age, we talk about Dillian Whyte and Tyson Fury going back and forth on Twitter,” said Joshua.
“Why don’t we just fight and the winner gets the respect? That’s what they used to do, they used to fight each other,” said Joshua.
I don’t think Joshua understands that Fury is just blabbering to try and drum up interest in his fight with Wilder.
He has no true interest in fighting Dillian Whyte because he knows it’s a bad match-up, and he already said he doesn’t care about making title defenses. He’s just looking for big fights.
