Tyson Fury’s co-promoter says there is little chance of Anthony Joshua facing the WBC heavyweight champion following his 12-round unanimous decision loss to Ukrainian southpaw Oleksander Usyk at Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium in Tottenham, England on Saturday night.
The 31-year-old Joshua 24-2 (22) lost his WBA, WBO and IBF titles to former undisputed cruiserweight champion Usyk 19-0 (13) who roundly outboxed him en route to a 117-112, 116-112 and 115-113.
Joshua is now expected to go into an immediate rematch with the 34-year-old Usyk in the first quarter of next year.
Joshua was expected to face Fury 30-0-1 (21) this past northern summer before an independent arbitrator ruled the WBC heavyweight champion was contractually obliged to face American Deontay Wilder 42-1-1 (41) for a third time.
That bout will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 9.
If successful, the 33-year-old Fury was expected to resume negotiations for a Joshua fight in the new year.
Those plans have been scotched with Joshua’s loss to Usyk.
Now Fury’s co-promoter Frank Warren has poured cold water on the idea of a Fury-Joshua clash, adding that Fury would have bested Joshua if they had fought on Saturday night.
“I don’t see it happening now,” Warren told BBC Sport.
“If it did happen, what would Tyson have done to him? It wouldn’t have gone 12 rounds. Tyson would have destroyed him. Absolutely. The unification fight was there, such a big fight. Heartbreaking.
“What would Tyson Fury had done to Joshua? A better chin, bigger puncher. Usyk is a good fighter, he boxed extremely well. But that was my thing about this fight – Joshua is so vulnerable. He’s been like that for ages.
“I thought Joshua would be too big for Usyk, but I knew if he was there at the end, then he’s been outboxed.”
Usyk was clearly the better man on the night, roundly outboxing Joshua who never managed to gain any momentum with his offence in the fight.
Despite being the smaller man Usyk even rocked Joshua twice, including just before the final bell when he sent him staggering backwards into the ropes.
But Joshua has rebounded from a loss before. He was stopped in seven frames by Andy Ruiz Jr at New York’s famed Madison Square Garden in June 2019 but came back to defeat the Mexican-American in their immediate rematch in Saudi Arabia six months later.
“Usyk nearly had him over at the end. He was gun shy. Never let his hands go,” Warren said.
“They can talk all they want about rematches. He’s just been totally exposed, like he was against Ruiz.
“How can he be getting out-jabbed by Usyk, who was taking the fight to him? I was shocked at that.
“Even if he was to beat Usyk, what is Tyson Fury going to do to Joshua? You’d have your house on Tyson beating him.”
