They say silence is golden, but that doesn’t seem to be the case for Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury having a boxing match.
There was a point recently that everywhere you looked you would find another supposed advancement in the contract negotiations between Fury and ‘AJ’. That all changed when ‘The Gypsy King’ decided that deadlines were the way forward. He set two, Team Joshua missed two. However, it’s important to note that they did keep their interest in the fight known, just not to that specific timeframe.
Since then, and despite talks apparently continuing, Fury has offered the fight elsewhere.
Frank Warren, one half of the negotiations, has provided an update on the December 3 bout that is, quite frankly, looking less and less likely by the day. In his column for the Daily Star, he summed up the latest advancements and hold ups.
“Conversations with the other side have been amicable but they’ve been slower than they should have been, especially this week. There just hasn’t seemed to be any urgency from Joshua to get it done and when deals take longer than they should to finalise, you start to question if they really want it.
The TV companies – both BT Sport and DAZN – have been brilliant and deals in principle were in play. Tickets manifests and seating charts were drawn up, the venue, everything was ready.
This week, the last issue we were told was Joshua said he doesn’t like the fact we have the final say if we can’t agree on something. So we said, ‘let’s put an independent person in the middle to have the final say on any disputed matters’. But nothing came back on the proposal.”
In some situations where two parties are struggling to agree, adding a third to the mix might be a bad idea. In this case, however, it seems like a productive solution to a problem potentially stopping fans from seen an all time great fight.
What’s certain is that the December date is closing in fast. Experience in the sport tells us that, if this fight isn’t made by Monday, it’s likely not going to made at all – maybe ever.