Johnny Nelson has weighed in on the apparent collapse of negotiations for a fight between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury – and believes public perception has started to shift against Fury.
Nelson told SecondsOut that, after years of being seemingly unable to do wrong in the fans’ eyes, Fury’s antics and constant moving of the goalposts is finally starting to wear thin on people’s patience.
“I said before, if this fight doesn’t happen, the buck stops with the fighters. This is the closest it’s ever been.
Unfortunately for Tyson Fury, there’s becoming a backlash against him now because he’s like the boy who cried wolf. It’s got to the stage where people are just not buying it anymore – they’re not giving him that grace anymore.
I think it’s kind of backfired on him.”
It would appear now that, after initial optimism, a potential meeting between Fury and AJ is once again dead in the water. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn came out yesterday to say that, as far as he was concerned, the fight was off.
With both men now well into their 30s, British fight fans are now seriously starting to consider whether a fight between Fury and Joshua will ever come to fruition. This time last year, the bout would have been for all four heavyweight titles, so there will be some with the view that the ship has already somewhat sailed.
It now looks likely that Fury will face a subpar opponent on his December outing, with German heavyweight Manuel Charr seemingly most likely to get the call. Dereck Chisora has reportedly also been offered the fight with ‘The Gypsy King,’ in what would be a trilogy match up after tasting defeat twice to Fury in their early careers.