As the WBC heavyweight champion sensationally offered his fellow Brit a lifeline earlier this week, Fury has now stated that he is well aware of the value of a fight with Anthony Joshua.
Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs) had originally planned to take on Oleksandr Usyk for every title in the sport’s premier division, but the Ukrainian opted against fighting this side of Christmas, citing needing a break to recuperate after his win over the aforementioned ‘AJ’ last month.
Usyk claimed Fury’s old Ring Magazine title in a rematch against Joshua at the Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia as he successfully retained the WBA Super, IBF, IBO and WBO world titles before calling out ‘The Gypsy King’.
Fury accepted and it seemed the fight was headed to the Middle East in December, but after Usyk made the decision to step away until 2023, Joshua was offered a shot at the WBC title by Fury on terms of 60-40.
He did a Q&A with The Ring Magazine in which he outlined the pull that the former two-time unified world champion still has despite three defeats in five.
“Listen, I’m not going to offer 75-25 as they’d do to me. If the shoe was on the other foot, they would say, ‘Well, we’ll give you 20 per cent.’ But because I want this fight to happen, I’m willing to give him 40 per cent.
And if I took this fight to the WBC, they’d probably say 70-30 in my favour.”
Joshua accepted the fight on social media after the call-out from Fury, before Eddie Hearn – who has promoted Joshua since he turned professional back in October 2013 following Olympic success a year earlier at London 2012 – seemingly accepted the purse split terms, but noted the proposed date as a sticking point.
December 17 was rumoured as a possible date, which is when Joshua will supposedly be ready, but the offer, which contained a rematch clause, was for the first fight to take place on November 12 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.
Despite complications in negotiation, Fury knows that the clash with the 32-year-old, which had originally been signed last year, is one that could go down in the history books as one of the biggest fights in the sport, regardless of the titles at stake.
“He doesn’t have anything and he’s coming off two losses, but I see the value in Joshua.
“Even though he’s lost to Usyk, I still think me and ‘AJ’ in England is bigger than me and Usyk.
“It’s 60-40 – there’s the deal. Do it or don’t do it.”