Tyson Fury claims Anthony Joshua fight is OFF just days after announcement
Tyson Fury claims his fight with Anthony Joshua is in danger of being called off just days after it was officially announced.
Fury and Joshua are set to meet in a long-awaited Battle of Britain on 11 December at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium with the fight to be streamed live on Netflix.
An official announcement came through on Wednesday with a press conference scheduled in London next week.
But stunning developments overnight have left the fight in serious jeopardy once again.
Mike Coppinger of the Ring Magazine reports the fight could be called off due to ‘issues’ with a replacement bout between Terence Crawford and Ryan Garcia being considered. Fury fighting unified cruiserweight champion David Benavidez is also an option being discussed.
While Coppinger provided no details on what was jeopardising proceedings, the presence of Dana White as the fight’s lead promoter and Eddie Hearn’s insistence the American is not involved is thought to be the cause of the issue.
Wednesday’s fight announcement stated Turki Alalshikh, the Saudi boxing kingpin financing the fight, and White ‘will collaborate to promote this historic showdown’.
Hearn who has promoted Joshua for his entire professional career, wasnot named in the official press release and has publicly claimed the UFC president cannot be involved.
In videos shared on social media overnight, Fury confirmed there is a serious threat to the fight going ahead, blaming Joshua and Hearn.
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‘Breaking news, AJ and Eddie are trying to pulling out of the fight,’ Fury said in a video shared on Instagram.
‘It’s mainly to do with Eddie Hearn’s ego. He’s making up a million different things. AJ, pull your finger out you little white-flagged, yellow-bellied coward. Now you’ve got Turki Alalshikh finding alternative real men who will fight at the drop of a hat. So I hope you are happy you cowardly b*****ds.’
In a second video, Fury added: ‘So Eddie Hearn’s ego is trying to cost us and all the boxing fans around the world, the fight the whole world has been waiting for over a decade. And it is all because Eddie doesn’t want someone in the building. It’s pathetic and childish. He doesn’t want him in the building, like he’s nine year-old. You silver-spooned w****r.
‘And Joshua, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. I’ve agreed to fight different locations for you. I had a contract, if I had stuck to that contract there would have been no fight. But I’m a fighting man. That’s the difference. You little cowards.’
Fury also shared a fight poster for a proposed bout between him and Benavidez on the same date in Cardiff.
To further stoke the flames Alalshikh appears to have further endorsed White’s involvement, posting a photo of the two on a video call with the latter smoking a cigar.
White runs Zuffa Boxing, a new and ambitious player in the sport, alongside Al-Sheikh.
In an interview with Sky Sports on Friday, White insisted he is ‘going nowhere’ as far as Fury vs Joshua is concerned.
‘I think that the press release speaks for itself,’ White said. ‘I’ve been saying since the beginning of the talks of this fight that I was going to be involved in the promotion of it.
‘You think Netflix [care] what Eddie Hearn thinks? I guarantee they do not. I mean: ‘not involved in the promotion of the fight’, I’m sitting here promoting the fight right now. Who’s going to stop me?’
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