Anthony Joshua laid eyes on a contract for Tyson Fury to face his fighter in fellow Brit Derek Chisora. It didn’t help their negotiations.
Promoter Eddie Hearn admitted AJ saw a Fury vs Chisora deal on the table despite the pair agreeing to terms.
Days later and Fury vs Joshua was dead.
Anthony Joshua reacts to Fury vs Chisora
The Matchroom Boxing boss, acting on behalf of Anthony Joshua, revealed to talkSPORT the former two-time WBA, WBO, and IBF champion’s reaction to the paperwork.
“I work for Anthony Joshua. He accepted the terms that were put to him. In the meantime, don’t forget Anthony Joshua represents Derek Chisora.
“Derek Chisora received a contract last week for the Tyson fury fight. Obviously, AJ sees that and thinks, “What’s going on?’
“We’ve apparently missed two deadlines now that are the final deadlines, so I don’t know. I’ve not spoken to Queensberry since Thursday of last week.
“As far as AJ is concerned, Fury’s told AJ the fight is off. Derek Chisora has the contract.
“I’m happy to keep talking, but I just don’t see the solution because I think Tyson Fury wants to fight Mahmoud Charr or Derek Chisora.”
Chisora contract was sent
George Warren, representing Fury’s team, responded to the Chisora contract when quizzed on talkSPORT later that same day. He said: “We are obligated to provide Tyson with fights.
“He’s got an opportunity to have a voluntary defense of his title. This position’s only come about because Oleksandr Usyk is unavailable in December.
“The intent was always to go straight to the undisputed. The only reason this opportunity arose was that Usyk won’t be available until early next year.
“Tyson made it clear to us he wants to fight. He originally wanted to fight on November 12. We had a date held.
“He came up with the idea. He wanted to see if this fight [vs Joshua] could be made, and he made that offer.”
Usyk is available, but the Middle East is not
Despite Warren’s words on Usyk, the Ukrainian’s manager has stated the unified heavyweight belt holder is available this year.
However, Warren is focused on landing a realistic opponent for Fury for a UK WBC title defense at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium.
In comparison, Fury vs Usyk is being eyed for the Middle East.
Joshua would have been choice number one. With Charr and Chisora behind a huge British showdown.
“It was our job to get that offer into a place where it could be executed upon.
“That’s why personally I worked extremely hard across a lot of different conversations, not just with Matchroom and not just with 258 [Management, AJ’s company]. But with the broadcasters, which I think were incredibly helpful, productive, and proactive about getting this done.
“We got to a point last week with them where deals in principle were agreed. But we knew who was going to be doing what.
“We knew what participation DAZN were having, what BT were responsible for. We knew the position that ESPN was going to have in America as well as DAZN.
“This all obviously needed to be formalized in a formal agreement. That’s not contested, but that dynamic shouldn’t have slowed down, in my opinion, the progress that the parties were making.
“There was a shift in them being proactive to get this done.”
Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua collapsed
Fury’s promoter Frank Warren has no alternative but to lock in a contract for the end of the year on the Dec 3 date. The Joshua bout is set to collapse for the second time in months.
After beating Dillian Whyte in April, maybe Fury would have been better served to negotiate with Joshua’s management team in the interim. That’s if they intended to offer him a shot at the title win or lose against Usyk in their Saudi Arabia rematch.
The Battle of Britain ends up on the scrap heap again, with the “Gypsy King” having to look elsewhere for what could end up being a damp squib before a prospective undisputed bout with Usyk.
After losing the third fight to Fury, Deontay Wilder will be an interested observer ahead of his WBC title eliminator on Oct 15.
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of Phil Jay.
WBN Editor Phil Jay has over ten years of boxing news experience. Follow WBN on Facebook @officialworldboxingnews, Instagram, and Twitter @worldboxingnews.
