Anthony Joshua has spoken on the negotiations to face Tyson Fury, what he thought of the social media call outs, and if he reckons the fight may still happen down the line.
It all looked promising for a while. Fury challenged ‘AJ’, who accepted with little fuss, and fans looked to be in for an all-British super fight that they had been demanding for years.
It wasn’t until a week of two after the initial buzz that small cracks started to show between the teams who were adamant they wanted the fight in December. Ultimately, talks crumbled – Fury now faces Derek Chisora and Joshua is looking at a 2023 return.
Still, it appears the former unified champion from Watford is taking it all in his stride. Joshua confirmed to DAZN that he still sees the two facing off in the future, and spoke to Fury’s public-facing negotiating style.
“My dance partner – the last geezer I was supposed to fight – he’s a good dance partner. He handles the social media side and I think we do good business behind the scenes to be fair.”
“It will happen [the Tyson Fury fight]. Same generation. But even aside from [the entertainment] side, just as two competitors, two fighters. He’s definitely someone that is a fighting man, and what people fail to realise [when] they say the social media stuff’s annoying, culturally speaking, from Tyson Fury’s culture – the gypsy culture – it’s on the phone … it’s embedded in the culture.”
“From where I grew up I’ve been around that community as well so I know that that’s just how they call out fighters, it’s nothing personal, but from my culture we don’t really deal with things like that. We’re a bit more low key.”
Whilst it’s nice for fans to hear that the failed talks haven’t put ‘AJ’ off trying it again at a later date, a realist’s view will tell you that a big opportunity in terms of timing has been missed – one that won’t necessarily come around again very quickly.