Fury impressed with how Joshua responded to his defeat to Ruiz Jr
Tyson Fury has revealed his new-found respect for Anthony Joshua and predicted the pair could meet in back-toback world heavyweight title unification bouts next year.
Both Fury and Joshua are set to return to the ring in separate fights in December, representing the final hurdle to a meeting which has already been verbally agreed.
And unbeaten Fury admitted he was impressed with the way Joshua shrugged off his shockdefeatbyAndyRuizJrin June to rebound with a win in Saudi Arabia six months later.
Fury said: “He handled it like a man, he took it in his strideandthatwasit–hedidn’t make a million excuses.
“I would hope that I could conduct myself like that if that happened to me. He just said, ‘fair play, I was beaten by the better man on the night’, and that was class.”
Fury warned a lucrative meeting between the pair is far from certain with Joshua set to face former title challenger Kubrat Pulev, while Furyisexpectedtoconfirmabout against German Agit Kabayel.
Furyadded:“We’vebothgot to get through our upcoming fightsandheavyweightboxing isnotagiven,anythingcanhappen at this level.
“These guys like Pulev have been waiting for a title shot for the last five years so it’s going to be a tough fight (for Joshua).
“Provided we both come through our next fights then I would like to think that this fight will finally get made, when we’re both at the peak of our careers and we’re both worldheavyweightchampions – and I’d like to think it could happen twice next year.”
*World champion Terri Harperhasstressedsheis“nowhere near the finished article” and spoken of the lessons learned from August’s clash with fellow Briton Natasha Jonas, who she hopes to fight again early next year.
Harper, victorious in each of her previous 10 bouts as a professional, battled out a draw with Jonas as she made a firstdefenceofherWBCsuperfeatherweight title, with some high-profile observers feeling heropponentdeservedtowin.
The 24-year-old Yorkshirewoman,
who faces Norway’s Katharina Thanderz on Saturday at Wembley’s SSE Arena, said of the Jonas contest: “That was my 11th professional fight. I’m nowhere near the finished article, I’ve still got a lot of learning to do. You can’t buy experience. It was a tough fightandabiglearningfightfor me.Butthesearethefightsyou need to have to take you to that next level. It made us look at what we need to work on.”