Tyson Fury has sparked controversy after his negotiations with Oleksandr Usyk broke down. He gained considerably negative traction from fellow boxers, promoters, and fans. His long-time speculated competitor Anthony Joshua is on that bandwagon as well.
Joshua acknowledged that it would be a “nightmare” if he had to sit at the negotiation table with Fury for a fight.
Why does Anthony feel that negotiating with Tyson Fury is hard?
Joshua’s comments come on the back of a turbulent negotiation between Fury and Usyk, which eventually fell apart. Fury kept pushing buttons. Usyk, however, surprised Fury by agreeing to a 70/30 split on the condition that Fury would donate a million pounds to war-torn Ukraine. ‘The Gypsy King’ agreed to the deal verbally, as the deals were being finalized.
The drama does not settle this easily when Fury is involved. His promoter Frank Warren warned previously that they would not go through with the deal if the negotiations surpassed the threshold of that weekend. For undisclosed reasons later, that warning came to fruition. News broke out as the negotiations took a hit.
This mental hassle of going through negotiation with Fury is what irks Joshua. Joshua himself lost his WBA, WBO, and IBF heavyweight title to Usyk. However, he does not have any sort of bad blood with Usyk. ‘AJ’ is rather bothered about Fury.
Anthony Joshua previously held negotiations with Tyson Fury
The heavyweight titans were supposed to face each other off in the ‘Battle of Britain.’ However, Fury backed off from that fight, citing that Joshua did not respect the deadline. In response to that, Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn came lashing out, as they claimed that the deadlines were beyond the meeting.
That being said, the long-covered fight may take place since Usyk is not facing Fury off. Joshua fears that the negotiations will be tougher than fear if it happens at all. He was astonished by how Fury treated a unified champion like Usyk. This is why, he can feel that Fury will lay out worse options for him on the table.
However, Joshua is confident that his promoting team will handle these situations vehemently. Joshua has a bigger follower base and a bigger social media presence – which clearly results in his hiked value. So it would only be fair for him to get the bigger chunk of the purse if they meet, is what Joshua feels.
Even though Fury strikes as an incorrigible negotiator to Joshua, the former champion feels that Fury is not wrong to proclaim himself the people’s champion. In fact, Joshua thinks that anybody who works with the viewer’s interest in mind will be hailed as a people’s champ. He thinks he is a people’s champ as well since he worked hard to keep this division popular. Which is why he does not want to fight for this claim with anyone. Proclaiming to be people’s champ has legitimacy in their own way. Joshua only wants to fight for glory in the ring.
š¬š§ Anthony Joshua is back fighting at the O2 for the first time in 7 years since his 7th-round KO of Dominic Brezeale.
š£ Are we going to see the return of this spiteful, aggressive version of AJ this Sat against šŗš² Jermaine Franklin? #JoshuaFranklinpic.twitter.com/0yMcMYEzru
ā EverythingBoxing (@EverythingBoxi2) March 27, 2023
Joshua is set to take on Jermaine Franklin on April 1 at the O2 Arena. After that, if he opts to go for the Fury fight, who do you think will win?
