WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury has severe doubts about whether he will ever step in the ring against Anthony Joshua or Oleksandr Usyk.
Unless both parties are willing, then these fights don’t get made: Tyson Fury
The “Gypsy King”, who has been the reigning green and gold monarch since February 2020, has often been in conversations regarding a fight against Joshua or Usyk. Fury has been in lengthy negotiations with the parties of both fighters, but neither Fury vs. Joshua nor Fury vs. Usyk actually reached any confirmation.
In the meantime, the Briton is gearing up for the much anticipated crossover fight against former UFC heavyweight champion and PFL newcomer Francis Ngannou on 28th October in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, marking the boxing debut of the MMA fighter.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Tyson Fury worded on his back and forth with Usyk, and stated that his side is unaware why the reigning unified champ didn’t nod to the fight in April.
“We don’t really know the reasons why Usyk didn’t take the fight in April. I’m sure he’s got his reasons. Then we find out he signs with Skills Challenge [Promotions], the Saudi Arabia boxing people. Whatever his reasons are, I’m sure it’s to suit him and his family. It is what it is,” said Fury. “I do believe that you can only do what you can do in this sport—if the fight’s available at the time you take them and if they’re not available then you can’t take them. Will we fight in the future? Hopefully. I like to, I always believed it’s an easy fight.”
Speaking about Joshua, who was the unified WBA, WBO and IBF champ before Usyk dethroned him, Fury said that there was a lack of willingness from his compatriot about taking the undisputed challenge.
“I fought for years and years and years me and Joshua would have fought each other and he’s not been wanting to do that challenge for years,” he went on, “You can’t force somebody into doing something no matter how much money there is or … whatever there is on the line. You can’t force somebody to do something that they don’t want to do. Unless both parties are willing, then these fights don’t get made as we’ve seen over the years.”
“In this last year, I’ve tried two or three times. It’s always not happened for whatever reason. I’m not optimistic. During the negotiations of this year, I was very optimistic. But there was a lot more stuff going on. After that, I was like, ‘It’s not happening.’ I even bet with [promoter] Frank Warren, a 10,000 pounds bet that it wouldn’t get signed and he said it would in a week, so I won the bet,” added Fury. [H/T Boxingscene.com]
