Anthony Joshua has vowed to fight rival heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in Britain before his career is over.
After months of painfully long negotiations, WBA Super, WBO and IBF champion Joshua and WBC king Fury had seemed on the brink of an agreement to unify the heavyweight crowns in Saudi Arabia in August.
Yet former WBC champion Deontay Wilder enforced a previously contracted trilogy fight with the Gypsy King instead, which takes place on October 9 after a positive Covid-19 test ruled out Fury in July.
Meanwhile, Joshua must repel the dangerous challenge of WBO No.1 contender Oleksandr Usyk at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday to keep his hopes of an undisputed title bout alive. But Joshua understands that Fury is the defining fight and opponent of his career, and insists he will do everything in his power to make it happen.
“We were meant to have fought by now and here we are talking about it,’ Joshua told The Daily Mail. “But it will happen. I know what people are saying about boxing politics, but I’ll promise before the end of my career I will have done everything in my power to fight Tyson Fury.
“We saw it with Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao [fighting later in their careers] but that was a superstar fight.
“Me and Fury is [about the] streets, two warriors, two fighters who have come from the amateur system in the UK, and have taken the world by storm. We’ll get it on in Britain.
“Don’t worry about age, boxing politics, don’t worry about the American dollar. This is a British UK fight which can happen at Wembley, Tottenham, the O2, York Hall.
“I look at it less as a mega-fight for the world and more from the point of view that we are guys who first met in Finchley ABC. It is a grassroots fight.”