I can beat AJ with one arm: Fury
TYSON Fury taunted Anthony Joshua on Monday by insisting that he could beat the world heavyweight champion with “one arm tied behind my back”.
Shortly after his thrilling 11th-round stoppage of Wladimir Klitschko at London’s Wembley on Saturday, Joshua, known as “AJ”, called out fellow British heavyweight Fury by saying: “Fury, where are you at, baby?”
While Joshua and Ukrainian veteran Klitschko retained a respectful tone towards one another both before and after their epic fight, the same cannot be said of Joshua’s relationship with Fury which has been marked by a series of back-and-forth taunts.
Fury dramatically beat Klitschko on points in a world title fight in November 2015 and once held both the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Association ( WBA) belts now held by Joshua.
But he hasn’t boxed since, with mental health problems forcing him to relinquish his titles, while his licence to box was subsequently suspended by the British Boxing Board of Control.
Fury, however, could have his licence returned at a hearing next week, and if Klitschko does not want a rematch with Joshua, or terms for one cannot be agreed, the momentum behind an all-British clash for the world heavyweight title could prove hard to stop.
“Styles do make fights but I am sure I can beat AJ with one arm tied behind my back,” Fury said in a Sky Sports interview from his training base in Marbella, on Spain’s south coast.
“I have been out of the ring as long as Klitschko, but the difference is I am not 41 – I am 28.”
Reflecting on the Wembley epic, Fury, who labelled Joshua a “pumped-up weightlifter”, said: “It was an excellent fight, very entertaining and enjoyable, and I was screaming for AJ to smash him.
“I wonder what people would be saying today if Klitschko had done him in the sixth. I was screaming, pulling my hair out – or what little hair I’ve got left – because I was worried that it would cost us millions!
“[ Joshua] showed he can get dropped and come back, which is what champions are made of. He showed he can recover from taking big shots.”
However, Fury added: “There’s only one fight out there, the biggest fight in the world and everyone knows that. It is the heavyweights, it is me and AJ, no one else.
“I am here, I am the lineal champion. I am still No1 in the world and everybody knows that.”
‘Up there with Ali-Frazier’
Meanwhile, Joshua can be a “f l ag bearer” f or boxing, according to one of Britain’s top sports promoters. Joshua was widely acclaimed for his stunning stoppage of Klitschko, with the former Olympic champion’s victory’s soon heralded as a boxing classic.
“All sports need flag-bearers,” said Barry Hearn, the chairman of Matchroom Sport, an agency whose boxing division, headed by his son Eddie, manages Joshua.
“For t hat t hey need a role model and Joshua is the finest role model I have seen in sport, period. He’s No1,” said the veteran English sports impressa rio, who made his na me managing snooker star Steve Dav is before bra nching out into boxing and darts.
Hearn, a lifelong boxing fan, said the Klitschko bout was one of the best he could recall and fit to be ranked alongside the classic 1970s trio of heavyweight fights between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.
“I’ve been following fights since I was 9 years old, listen- ing and studying the game, and it delivered on all fronts,” said Hearn, 69, who took time out from presiding over snooker’s World Championship in his role as chairman of World Snooker, to be at ringside.
“I think it was one of the best heavyweight fights. I always thought Ali-Frazier, the trilogy, was the best, but of course there was only one knockdown in the first one [the 1971 ‘Fight of the Century’ at New York’s Madison Square Garden which Frazier won on points].
“I spoke to [former heavyweight champion] Evander Holyfield on Saturday night and said: ‘Can you remember a world title fight when both heavyweights went down?’ And between us we couldn’t. I was going back in my mind to the Jack Dempsey era [of the 1920s],” Hearn said.