As far as Anthony Joshua and Co. are concerned, the ball is now firmly in Tyson Fury’s court.
Earlier this week, representatives of the former heavyweight champion from London announced that they agreed to all of the terms that had been laid out by WBC heavyweight titlist Fury and his promoter Frank Warren of Queensberry Promotions for an all-British fight at the end of the year.
“258 and @MatchroomBoxing can confirm, on behalf of @anthonyjoshua, that we accepted all terms presented to us by Fury’s team for a fight Dec 3rd last Friday,” read the tweet from Joshua’s management company 258.
Queensberry responded straightaway to the tweet, saying that contracts were being sent over to Joshua and his people.
This is at least the second time that Joshua and Fury have been in negotiations for a fight. The British heavyweights seemed to be on the brink of fighting each other last year when an arbitration hearing ruled that Fury owed a third fight with Deontay Wilder. Fury would go on to stop Wilder that October in the 11th round at T-mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Fury’s offer to Joshua comes on the heels of Joshua’s second straight loss to unified champion Oleksandr Uysk in their rematch last month in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Fury is coming off a sixth-round stoppage of mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte in April.
Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, recently said he remains “hopeful” that a deal can be struck with Fury, while expressing some caution given failed attempts in the past. Hearn made it clear that Joshua has done everything on his end to make the fight with Fury a reality.
“We signed for the fight before,” Hearn told FightHype.com. “We never pulled out of that fight. We signed for the undisputed fight and it fell through because of a legal case with Wilder, the arbitration. We’ll see. I’m hopeful. We’ve been here before. We agreed to terms.
“AJ can’t do anymore. He’s ready to fight.”
Asked if he is suspicious of Fury’s eagerness to fight Joshua, Hearn refused to speculate.
“Maybe they think it’s a great time to fight Joshua,” Hearn said. “But I don’t want to downplay it. I don’t want to accuse anyone of anything. I wanna try and make the fight. So let’s see.”
By Sean Nam