Derek Chisora has claimed that, despite having himself to focus on for their upcoming trilogy, Tyson Fury is only thinking about one man – Anthony Joshua.
Fury and Joshua have always gone back-and-forth with each other, but especially since a potential ‘Battle of Britain’ fight between the two fell through last month. ‘The Gypsy King’ began negotiations with ‘AJ’ when he wasn’t prepared to wait until next year for Oleksandr Usyk to be ready for an undisputed matchup. When talks broke down, he picked ‘WAR’ Chisora as his opponent for the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 3rd December.
Despite being the chosen one, Chisora told Sky Sports that Fury still has Joshua on the brain.
“AJ is living in Tyson’s head rent-free.”
“Tyson wakes up every day thinking about AJ and cannot do an interview without mentioning him. AJ is off living his life, doing his own thing. I don’t know why Tyson keeps talking about AJ.”
The announcement of the fight has been met with some backlash from fans as Fury has already beaten Chisora twice, winning via unanimous decision in July 2011 and round ten retirement in November 2014. It’s likely more amplified given that fans thought they were close to seeing Fury face Joshua. ‘Del Boy‘, whose career is handled by ‘AJ’s company 258 Management, has revealed why his friend couldn’t take sign the deal.
“AJ could not take the fight because there were so many complications with sponsors and promoters. The fighters always want to fight, just fight, but the complications come from the business people around them who get in the way.”
It now looks like 2012 Olympic gold medalist Joshua won’t fight until 2023. Promoter Eddie Hearn hoped he’d be out again before the end of the year following his rematch defeat to pound-for-pound great Usyk in Saudi Arabia in August, but he now looks set to return in January or February next year, with Dillian Whyte being the front runner to face him.