Joshua advises Fury to sign for Matchroom and seal their big fight
ANTHONY JOSHUA has advised Tyson Fury to sign for Matchroom Boxing in order to get a fight between the pair sorted as quickly and smoothly as possible.
The former lineal heavyweight champion has been out of the ring for two-and-a-half years since his crowning moment where he defeated Wladimir Klitschko in Dusseldorf, Germany and with his comeback from various out-of-thering issues looming, he remains a free agent.
Speaking to iFL TV after a press conference yesterday afternoon ahead of his fight against Joseph Parker, the unified heavyweight champion offered his advice to Fury over his future.
“Fury should sign with Matchroom. I fought Klitschko at Wembley, Takam and now Parker. After the Klitschko fight, Wilder weren’t calling me out, so I was calling out Fury: ‘Tyson Fury, where you at baby!?’ because that’s who I was looking to fight after.
“It would be a good fight if we can make that happen, that was a fight I was looking forward to, to be fair. Then Wilder was quiet saying, ‘I wish we had this in America!’”
Although refusing to look beyond his fight against Parker on Saturday, Joshua has a range of opponents who he could face throughout the rest of 2019 and said that he wouldn’t be avoiding anyone on his road to becoming the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, with Parker holding the WBO and Wilder the WBC belt.
“Then after that, I had a defence against Takam and now we’re here fighting for another championship belt. No ducking and diving, we’ve been lively and we know where we’re going to just follow the process.”
Joshua also revealed he is driven by a fear of losing and conceding his status as the world’s leading fighter.
Since unifying the WBA and IBF heavyweight titles with his dramatic stoppage defeat of Wladimir Klitschko and amid Floyd Mayweather’s retirement, Joshua has become perhaps the world’s highest-profile fighter and inherited boxing’s biggest scalp. Defeat to Parker would end Joshua’s hopes of then fighting Deontay Wilder for all four world titles in what would be the most significant match-up in the world, and he also explained it was that fear that led to his perceived snub of media from New Zealand and Samoa, which Parker described as “disrespectful”.
“It keeps me going,” the 28-year-old said. “I don’t want to lose. It’s little things. People thought I walked out on the New Zealand press, but that wasn’t the case. It was because I was there from 10.30am, until 5pm, and had to be back in the gym for 6.30pm to train, and I had to eat. It wouldn’t have mattered if it was African press or the Chinese press.” (© Independent News Service)