Tyson Fury has said he needs to fight Anthony Joshua and it will be a travesty if it doesn’t happen – despite previously claiming that he would never entertain negotiations with his rival again.
When their very public fights talks fell through in September, Fury was quick to state that ‘AJ’ had missed his chance of a shot at his WBC belt.
He wished Joshua good luck with his career and his life, and said that it was the end of any potential fight between the two British heavyweights. In fact, the champion’s exact words were: “He doesn’t have anything that I need and there will not be a fight between me and him ever. Full stop.”
Now, ‘The Gypsy King seems to have had a change of heart. Speaking on the High Performance podcast, Fury went as far as to say that he couldn’t retire until he faced Joshua.
“I don’t think I can retire today. Because I need that Joshua fight. We have been trying to make that fight for years. It’s the fight that people want to see. It’s the fight that I want to see as a boxing fan.”
He went on to reiterate his claims that ‘AJ’ is the only fighter left in his era that he needs to face, despite current WBA, IBF, IBO and WBO champion, Oleksandr Usyk, turning professional in the same year Joshua did – 2013.
“For the last four or five years, there has been this three-headed monster: me, Wilder, Joshua. Joshua and Wilder have been slain and I’m the last one standing. All of a sudden, you’ve got some new people coming up now – Joe Joyce, Daniel Dubois, Usyk’s gatecrashed the party.”
“Now there’s a load of new blood that wasn’t there five years ago and it’s like, ‘can you beat this person?’. But I think it would be an absolute dying travesty if me and Joshua didn’t fight in this era.”
Fury faces Derek Chisora for the third time this December. He’s then expected to head straight into camp for an undisputed fight against Usyk, although recent complications may derail that. Whether or not he sticks by his word and does everything in his power to face Joshua after that, only time will tell.