Warren: Fury does eventually want Joshua, not sure interest really goes both ways
There has been a lot of talk about a possible undisputed heavyweight title fight, and Frank Warren isn’t sure Anthony Joshua is really as up for it as he’s saying.
Heavyweight titleholders Anthony Joshua (WBA/IBF/WBO) and Tyson Fury (WBC/LINEAL!!!!!) have been the subject of a lot of talk lately, both about their tentatively planned upcoming mandatory or contractually-obligated bouts, and the idea that the two may meet sometime for all the marbles.
There have been confirmed talks about making Fury-Joshua a reality, but nothing that would be coming next. Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s promoter, has said it would happen in 2021 more likely than 2020, and that so far the discussions have mostly been seeing what sort of money they could get from various locations to put the fight on.
In his latest column on his web site, Fury co-promoter Frank Warren confirms that, as well, but says there have been no firm offers made or anything of the sort.
“There has been some discussions going on with various sites interested in staging the fight, but no concrete offers have been submitted,” he said. “In the absence of this, there have been no negotiations regarding the potential fight.”
Warren is adamant — and others have been — that the fights actually signed for Fury and Joshua are against Deontay Wilder and Kubrat Pulev. He adds, too, that he’s not sure when it gets down to it that Joshua and Co. will truly be as gung ho for it as they’re saying now.
“Should a pathway eventually clear towards making Tyson v AJ actually become a reality, it will be very interesting to see if both parties truly want the fight,” the promoter said. “I know Tyson does and we do. With Team Joshua I am just not so sure they are as keen as they make out. We’ll have to wait and see.”
It’s a nice little parting shot from a veteran promoter, needling the situation just that little bit more. But he could also be right. There have not really been serious negotiations here and we’ve all seen a lot of fighters say this and that, as well as their promoters, and then when it’s time to actually do it, nothing winds up happening. So as he said, we’ll have to wait and see.