WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury 33-0-1 (24) can’t see himself ever facing former two-time unified champion Anthony Joshua 26-2 (23) or reigning WBA, WBO and IBF champion Oleksandr Usyk 20-0 (13).
The 35-year-old Fury has failed to make a fight with either boxer over the years.
Most recently, a proposed four-belt unification bout with Usyk in April fell through when the 36-year-old Ukrainian southpaw wanted a 50-50 purse split for the rematch if he won their first bout. The former undisputed cruiserweight champion conceded a 70-30 purse split in favour of Fury for their first meeting.
The pair have since gone their separate ways. Usyk will defend his titles against mandatory challenger Daniel ‘Dynamite’ Dubois 19-1 (18) this Saturday in Poland, while Fury will box a 10-round non-title fight against boxing debutant and former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia on October 28.
“We don’t really know the reasons why Usyk didn’t take the fight in April,” Fury told Sky Sports. “I’m sure he’s got his reasons. Then we find out he signs with Skills Challenge [Promotions], the Saudi Arabia boxing people. Whatever his reasons are, I’m sure it’s to suit him and his family. It is what it is.
“I do believe that you can only do what you can do in this sport — if the fight’s available at the time you take them and if they’re not available then you can’t take them. Will we fight in the future? Hopefully. I like to, I always believed it’s an easy fight.”
Talks for a Joshua fight were well underway again last year after numerous previous attempts to get the two big men in the same ring failed. Fury seemingly had different demands for Joshua every other day if he wanted to get the fight made.
“I thought for years and years and years me and Joshua would have fought each other and he’s not been wanting to do that challenge for years,” Fury said.
“You can’t force somebody into doing something no matter how much money there is or… whatever there is on the line. You can’t force somebody to do something that they don’t want to do. Unless both parties are willing, then these fights don’t get made as we’ve seen over the years.
“In this last year, I’ve tried two or three times. It’s always not happened for whatever reason. I’m not optimistic. During the negotiations of this year, I was very optimistic. But there was a lot more stuff going on. After that, I was like, ‘It’s not happening.’
“I even bet with [co-promoter] Frank Warren a 10,000 pound bet that it wouldn’t get signed and he said it would in a week, so I won the bet.”
Fury added that he thinks Joshua is fearful of losing to a fellow Brit.
“I just think he’s happy losing to people not from this country,” Fury continued. “I don’t think he wants to lose to someone from this country, no matter what money is on the line.
“Maybe he does, but not right now, maybe in the future. We’ll see. I can’t look around the corner. We’ll see what the future holds.”
Not everyone is buying the line that it’s other boxers who are baulking at facing Fury. You can count undisputed welterweight champion Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford 40-0 (31) amongst their number.
“I think it goes back to the business. Usyk is a great fighter and has accomplished great things in the sport of boxing and for him to get disrespected in the negotiations – which I’m pretty sure is probably what it all came down to – is not right,” Crawford said on The Joe Rogan Experience.
“Who was behind the reason for it not to happen? That’s when you start asking those type of questions. These fights should be mandated to happen, so you can clean up the sport of boxing and we have only one champion in one division.”
