Fury could fight Joshua in Saudi Arabia this year
Both boxers keen on all-british showdown Wilder may be paid to waive right to rematch
Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua will fight each other this autumn if they both come through their next bouts, Fury’s promoter Frank Warren believes, with Saudi Arabia the favourite to beat Wembley as the venue.
Warren and Fury’s camp have not given up hope of Deontay Wilder, who will invoke his right to a trilogy fight with Fury, accepting “step aside” money to clear the path for an all-british heavyweight showdown.
By that method, Wilder would charge a fee to waive his right to a rematch by the second week of July
– the deadline in the contract. “It would be expensive – but who knows. The only way you find it is if you try,” Warren said.
“He’s made some stupid statements, I think. I hoped he’d take the defeat as I think he should have done – with grace. All that nonsense about the [ring walk] costume [weighing him down] was garbage.”
As things stand, Fury and Wilder will fight again in June with Joshua confronting Kubrat Pulev, a mandatory challenger who could also be nudged aside if Fury became free. But Saudi Arabia has already declared its wish to stage Furyjoshua and has the financial might to outbid Wembley. Warren said: “You go back to [Muhammad] Ali fighting [George] Foreman in Zaire when a lot of money was put up, you go back to the Thrilla in Manila [Ali v Joe Frazier], where money was put up. That happens in boxing.”
Remarkably, Warren has never spoken to Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn. “It’s not about his ego, it’s about what the fighters want,” Warren
said. “It’s not Hearn’s decision. We’ve got a contractual position. There is a rematch clause [for Fury]. Joshua does have to fight Pulev, he does have to fight [Oleksandr] Usyk – so all those obstacles would have to be overcome if we wanted to go straight to the Fury-joshua fight. That’s tough. All I can say at our end is that if we can do it, we’ll do it, for obvious reasons. I think Tyson will do a job on him.”
Fury, meanwhile, remains sanguine about who comes next. “I don’t think he cares. He’ll go where it’s at,” Warren said. “He’s never ducked anybody, has he? He goes on the road. He’s a fighting man. That’s what I like about him.”
Fury-wilder III would sell well in Britain but is more likely to take place in the United States, with less interest than the first two fights generated.
Warren was critical of Wilder’s game plan in Las Vegas, saying: “I expected him to come in a bit lighter, for speed. The only way I can see him beating Tyson is with speed. He’s got the power – we know he can throw the punches.
“He’d have to come in, get underneath Tyson’s jab, be really sharp and fast and let his shots flow. Tyson’s ramrod jab kept him on the back foot.
“Tyson was the aggressor. When we made the first fight I watched him [Wilder]. I studied him and studied him. I told Tyson – you’ll be too much for him. He absolutely did a job on him – mentally, physically. He did him in every department.”