The tale of The Boy Who Cried Wolf comes to mind when it comes to Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua ever locking horns in a boxing match.
Moments after Fury’s victorious return to action last night against Arslanbek Makhmudov, the two-time heavyweight champion demanded that Joshua face-off with him in the ring, and at the post fight press conference he said he would retire if he didn’t get that fight next.
Prior to Fury’s entertaining and dominant performance at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Turki Alalshikh had said he would announce a fight that would change the landscape of boxing, in not so many words! It was an open secret that a landscape changing fight would be between Fury and Joshua. In-fact reports circled after Gareth A.Davies had announced that the fight between the two was signed weeks ago. However, his comments were walked back after Eddie Hearn made it abundantly clear that the all British bout had not been signed.
The awkward spectacle was incredibly clumsy as Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn clearly hadn’t been briefed on the all British-bout making it over the line. As Turki Alalshikh invited Joshua into the ring to face-off with Fury to help promote the heavyweight mega-fight, Joshua’s eyes were locked on Fury with a dodgy smile, while Hearn was obviously confused.
To add more confusion to the 60,000 fans in attendance, Joshua’s Netflix branded microphone wouldn’t work, prompting an adrenaline fuelled Fury to suggest “give him mine.” Although the conversation can be heard on the live broadcast, Joshua resisted jumping in the ring to tell his archrival; “You work for me.” By this point in the evening, it was abundantly clear that nothing had been agreed. It brought a very English end to what was an entertaining return for The Gypsy King.
Fury did say in the post-fight press conference that he had “signed” his side of the agreement and to be fair to him, there was no unreasonable demands as he gloated about “having more money to spend than this entire room.”
When asked by my editor to come up with my thoughts on the heavyweight fallout, one story stuck in my head as spent the day struggling through London to Stansted Airport—The Boy Who Cried Wolf. I’m sure nearly all of you reading this were told this story as a child in an attempt to teach us not to make up stories.
Sadly, this is where we currently stand with Fury vs Joshua. Boxing fans were promised the announcement of a fight that would transform boxing, but they were obviously chancing it. The problem from a boxing fan’s perspective is that as this stage of the Fury/Joshua saga, even if/when it does get announced, it will be difficult to have much confidence in the fight actually taking place.
When Fury and Joshua signed and announced they would have a two-fight deal in 2021 with the undisputed title on the line, British boxing fans were full of anticipation. However, because of an already agreed trilogy with Deontay Wilder, nothing happened. On Saturday we were told the biggest fight in world boxing was going to be announced, but instead nothing happened again. Fury also offered Joshua the chance to challenge him for his WBC belt in 2022, with the pair even agreeing to a 60/40 split. However, again, it didn’t happen. Fury would eventually move on to fight Usyk twice, losing his titles in his first career defeats.
Spencer Brown, Fury’s manager, expressed a positive outlook, “I think the fight will take place this year,” he said on Saturday following Fury’s victory on Saturday.
A frustrated Fury said: “I’ve signed. I signed months ago. I don’t know if he signed?” His promoter Frank Warren added: “No, he hasn’t.”
The sad fact is what this fight should have been will never be, two undefeated British world champions putting it all on the line for the undisputed championship.
The money pouring into the heavyweight division from Alalshikh will eventually make the fight inevitable. However, after seven years of failed agreements and cancellations, fans will struggle to believe the prospect of the long discussed British mega-fight as the new generation of heavyweights are fast approaching.
