Tyson Fury’s US promoter Bob Arum says that the postponed heavyweight showdown between his WBC champion and WBA Super, WBO and IBF title holder Anthony Joshua should take place in the UK in 2022.
Fury-Joshua was, of course, scheduled for Saudi Arabia in August before an arbitrator ruled the ‘Gypsy King’ must first face American rival Deontay Wilder in a previously contracted trilogy bout.
The heavyweight waters were further muddied when Fury-Wilder III was delayed after the Mancunian contracted Covid-19, prompting a change of date from July 24 to October 9. Joshua, meanwhile, faces WBO No.1 contender Oleksandr Usyk, live on Sky Box Office in the UK, on September 25.
AJ’s promoter Eddie Hearn told Talksport earlier this week that Fury-Joshua could be resurrected for February 2022 though Arum has suggested that might be too early.
“The problem with Eddie? He cannot stop talking,” Hall of Fame promoter Arum told Sky Sports. “When he says February, he is saying the fight will happen next year which is clearly correct. Joshua is fighting in September, we are fighting in October. Obviously [Fury-Joshua] will take place next year. But February, March or April? That remains to be seen.
“My hope is that the fight goes to the UK. I don’t care what the money is. Both fighters owe the UK fans this tremendous event at Wembley or Cardiff, rather than taking it to a foreign country.
“My position is: if Fury and Joshua win, screw any mandatories! Fury vs Joshua is the fight that people want to see. Period. End of story.
“That is an easy fight to make. It is not a hard fight to make. We had the fight rolling. The central elements had been taken care of. There were no problems, really, on the deal. Why did the deal stall and not get finalised? In my opinion, overreaching. We were all in line, ‘Okay, do the fight in Saudi Arabia’.
“If we had struck a deal with the Saudis, the arbitrator would not have [ruled for Fury to box Wilder first]. He would have allowed [Fury-Joshua] to happen and he would have given damages to Wilder.
“But there was no deal with the Saudis. That’s what happened. It won’t happen again. Before we negotiate outside of the UK, we will have strict rules as to who is part of the negotiating team.”