Boxing: Joshua promises dream bout with Fury will happen
Before the end of my career I will have done everything in my power to fight him, he says
London: Anthony Joshua says the mouthwatering heavyweight boxing bout with fellow Briton Tyson Fury will happen preferably in Britain before he hangs up his gloves.
Between them, the two boxers currently hold all the major versions of the heavyweight world title.
Talks of a unification ‘superfight’, which went on for months, appeared to be on the brink of ending in an agreement earlier this year only for a United States arbitrator to rule Fury had to fight Deontay Wilder for a third time.
Maiden defence
As a result Fury, having previously drawn with and then stopped Wilder, is set to make the maiden defence of his World Boxing Council (WBC) belt against the American in Las Vegas next month.
Joshua is set to face World Boxing Organization (WBO) mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk in London next Saturday, with a crowd of some 60,000 expected at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the home of the Premier League club.
Joshua, also the World Boxing Association (WBA) and International Boxing Federation (IBF) champion, says he will battle to get the fight with Fury on.
“It will happen,” the 31-year-old said.
Two warriors
“I know what people are saying about boxing politics, but I’ll promise before the end of my career I will have done everything in my power to fight Tyson Fury. We saw it with Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao (not fighting until they were beyond their primes) but that was a superstar fight. Me and Fury is streets, two warriors, two fighters who have come from the amateur system in the UK, and have taken the world by storm. We’ll get it on in Britain.”
Joshua had spoken earlier in the week of how his career would be incomplete without fighting Fury.
Thus the 2012 super-heavyweight Olympic champion is determined all potential barriers to the bout with the pugilist known as the ‘Gypsy King’ will be surmounted.
“Don’t worry about age, boxing politics, don’t worry about the American dollar,” he said.
“This is a British UK fight which can happen at Wembley, Tottenham, the O2, York Hall. I look at it less as a mega-fight for the world and more from the point of view that we are guys who first met in Finchley ABC. It is a grassroots fight.”