Negotiations between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua could be reopened as soon as next week, providing the latter beats American heavyweight, Jermaine Franklin.
The two British superstars entered into rushed and ad-hoc talks late last year that ultimately crumbled leaving nothing but bad blood without a fight.
Fury went into negotiations with the man who defeated ‘AJ’ for his unified titles – Oleksandr Usyk. The contest between the two would crown an undisputed champion in the division for the first time since Lennox Lewis, but that legacy ultimately didn’t help make it happen.
It left Fury without an opponent, and ‘AJ’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, was quick to reignite the idea of a domestic dust-up. He said that early stage contracts could be sent next week, Franklin result dependant.
George Warren – son of hall of fame promoter Frank and a part of Queensberry – confirmed to the Daily Mail that they had been approached, but anything above that was misleading.
“Eddie reached out last week. We discussed a number of things including Fury vs Joshua in view of the Usyk breakdown and said he would like to revisit the conversation after the Franklin.
It hasn’t been discussed with Tyson at this stage. So anything said now is misleading.”
Fury has flip-flopped about wanting to face Joshua, once saying that his career would feel unfinished should he not, but then claiming that he would never entertain ‘the bodybuilder’ again because of how the talks went last time.
There’s no doubt that it’s the biggest heavyweight bout to make outside of undisputed, and would even be a bigger earner than that.
Whether or no egos can be placed to the side for the fight to be made is another matter entirely, and one which fans won’t be confident of.