By Robert Segal: Bob Arum poured cold water on the idea of Tyson Fury fighting Anthony Joshua this year, saying the fight will NOT happen until 2023.
Arum says he thinks Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn will focus on getting a couple of confidence boosters before looking to fight Fury possibly next year.
Earlier today, Fury gave Joshua a deadline of today to agree to fight him on November 26 or December 3, along with a 60-40 split and a 50-50 split for the rematch if there were to be one. .
Hearn had already made it very clear that he wanted Dec. 17 for the Fury-Joshua fight, as well as a 60-40 split in favor of Joshua should he beat Fury.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen because while Fury would want it to happen, I put myself in the shoes of Eddie Hearn and Joshua, and after losing to Usyk, the first thing I want to do is put him back in the shoes. call Joshua and get him two fights where he gets his confidence back,” Bob Arum told Boxing Social.
“If he goes back in the ring with Fury, it will be a massacre. I think that’s fair enough. Joshua is no longer a champion,” Arum said when asked if a 60-40 split in favor of Fury is a fair split for a Joshua fight.
“If Fury is willing to do that in a rematch, I’ll take it for sure,” Arum said of the split being in Joshua’s favor 60-40 if he beats Fury in the first fight.
“I don’t think Fury vs. Joshua to happen this year because everything I know about boxing from Joshua’s point of view indicates that it won’t happen.
“There are a number of fighters in Europe that we are talking to,” Arum said when asked who Fury will face next, if not Joshua. “Fury will definitely fight this year and he will definitely fight in the UK.
“I spoke to Usyk’s manager, Egis Klimas, yesterday and he said: ‘Please don’t rush us. We will do the fight in the first quarter of next year with Fury against Usyk’.
“In the meantime, Fury wants to keep himself busy, so if this Joshua fight doesn’t come to fruition, which I think it won’t, then Frank & George and Queensbury and their people will find a suitable opponent for Fury to fight in the UK. . Arum said.
