Joshua v Fury fight moves a step closer
ANTHONY Joshua and Tyson Fury have signed a deal for two world heavyweight title unification bouts, according to Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn.
Hearn told ESPN that 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”.
Confirming 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.”
On a potential venue for the fight, which is sure to draw a worldwide audience, Hearn added: “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 per-cent share for a rematch.
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 added that he had stopped training and was drinking up to 12 pints of lager a day.
Fury 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 eased past Kubrat Pulev in his last fight in December while Fury has not fought since his rematch win over Deontay Wilder over a year ago.
The last undisputed heavyweight champion was Britain’s Lennox Lewis from 1999 to 2000, before a boxer had to also hold the WBO belt to be recognised as undisputed champion.
Joshua, 31, holds the WBA, WBO and IBF belts, while Fury, 32, has the WBC title.