‘Deal signed’ for Joshua v Fury title showdown

ANTHONY Joshua and Tyson Fury have signed a deal for two world heavyweight title unification bouts, according to Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn.

Hearn said a venue for the fights – in which Joshua’s WBA, IBF and WBO titles and Fury’s WBC belt will be on the line – is set to be confirmed “within the next month”.

Financially and in terms of its global projection, the showdown threatens to dwarf any of the previous all-British superfights.

Announcing the deal, Hearn said: “The hard part is always getting everybody to put pen to paper.

“But this was a major effort from all parties to get this over the line. You had rival promoters, rival networks and rival fighters.

“We’ve already had approaches from eight or nine sites.

“The offers have come from multiple countries in the Middle East, from Asia, Eastern Europe and America.”

The deal is understood to represent a 50-50 split for the first fight, with the winner taking the larger 60% share for a rematch.

However, Fury’s camp has not yet confirmed their satisfaction with the deal, and further negotiations will be necessary before a date and venue can be set in stone.

Hearn’s announcement comes just days after Fury insisted in an interview with iFL TV that the fight against Joshua was “nowhere near” being made.

Fury said he had stopped training and was drinking up to 12 pints of lager a day.

He said: “Until I’ve got a date and a load of money in my pocket, there’s no fight.

“There’s a lot of things going on that people don’t know behind the scenes that can scupper a fight like that. We’re nowhere near at the moment.

“I’ve stopped training now, I’m on holiday. I’m doing anything between eight to 10 to 12 pints of lager a day at the minute – I’m not eating though, so I’m just getting my calories through alcohol.”

Joshua (main picture) eased past Kubrat Pulev in his last fight in December while Fury (inset, below) has not fought since his rematch win over Deontay Wilder more than a year ago.

Based on their most recent outings alone, Fury would start as favourite.

He bashed Wilder into submission, while Joshua merely did what was required of him in dispatching Ruiz second time round, followed by Pulev.