Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder still appear to have a shaky relationship, despite playing protagonists in one of the best boxing trilogies of all time, but it seems the two finally sit on the same side about one particular topic: Anthony Joshua.
This is since talks for a potential ‘Battle of Britain’ super fight in December between Fury and AJ have fallen apart recently for the second time after the Wilder arbitration stopped the fight happening for the undisputed championship last year.
A Joshua vs Wilder bout has also not come to fruition in the past, when the two were in talks to fight in 2018. This also would’ve been for the undisputed title, with Joshua holding the WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO belts and Wilder possessing the WBC championship, as well as both men holding perfect records at the time.
Speaking with SecondsOut, ‘The Gypsy King’ made it clear who he blamed for the Joshua-Wilder never materialising:
“We all know Joshua wouldn’t fight Wilder for $50 million back in the day, we all knew that.
We all knew that. My lawyer has seen the money, the $50 million from [Wilder’s advisor] Al Haymon. That was real. Yeah. And he s*** himself yet again. He has never fought somebody who is going to beat him.
These control freaks can’t go on someone else’s show because their ego is too big. This wasn’t Joshua-Fury, because Joshua holds three losses. This was my show, and for them with their massive ego to play ball, they’re not going to do it. They wouldn’t do it for the $50 million to go to America and fight Wilder as a Wilder-Joshua show.”
Speaking to ES News this summer, Wilder also accused Joshua’s team of doing everything to avoid the fight.
“Everybody picked me to beat Joshua and that’s the reason why they didn’t want to make the fight before.
“That was the reason why they took me on a six-month rollercoaster because they did everything to avoid the fight [with me]. They did not want to fight.
“Fast forward years and now we’re seeing it [the Joshua team wanting to make the fight with Wilder]. We’ll see [if it happens] because we ain’t bullsh**ting.”
With Wilder’s devastating first round knockout win over Robert Helenius this weekend, talk about a potential fight with Joshua has started to gather momentum again, with many in the sport calling it the biggest fight possible in the heavyweight division.