“They let the whole boxing world down” - Anthony Joshua hits out at Tyson Fury’s team
"With or without Usyk in my life I’m going to fight Fury. Let’s put it that way. Usyk’s not the end all and be all..."
Talks were ongoing for months between both sides with the view for the Brits to fight this summer.
Matchroom supremo Eddie Hearn was working around the clock to get the deal across the line. This led to both fighters agreeing to a site deal in Saudi Arabia. The proposed date was August 14.
This news circulated in May. Frustratingly, this deal broke down days later. This came as Deontay Wilder won his arbitration case against Fury.
Wilder was reportedly demanding around £20m to step aside, but Bob Arum was not interested in offering him any money.
So that was that. In a matter of days, Fury had gone from almost signing on to fight Joshua in August to agreeing to square off against Wilder on July 24 in Las Vegas.
Instead of facing Fury, Joshua now looks set to fight Oleksandr Usyk. The Ukrainian is the mandatory challenger for AJ's WBO world heavyweight title.
Usyk unified the cruiserweight division by stopping Tony Bellew and since stepping up to heavyweight, he has beaten Chazz Witherspoon and Derek Chisora.
Ahead of that fight, Joshua has been interviewed by Sky Sports. He suggested that he will face Fury regardless of what happens against Usyk:
AJ is pissed off, and we like it…
After five months of this, Joshua was right to be pissed off when it all fell apart.
This revelation would have been even more annoying given that he was training for Fury and that the change was out of his control.
Listening to his latest interviews, Joshua is very focused and he is speaking out against the likes of Wilder and Fury more than he has ever done before.
Joshua's fundamentals have improved immensely in recent years, but this new attitude should see him become more spiteful in the ring.