Heavyweight contender Joe Joyce has changed his prediction on a potential showdown between domestic rivals Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.
Fury and Joshua are in talks to meet on December 3 at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium.
In previous interviews, Joyce sided with her old Team GB teammate Joshua to beat Fury.
Joyce, an Olympic silver medal winner, has combat experience with both fighters.
“Originally I thought AJ would do the business, but I’m definitely favoring Fury. Just because of his boxing ability. But I still think it’s a great fight and Joshua has a chance to punch, like always,” Joyce told Talk Sport.
“He has some very damaging punching power and if he goes on the offensive it will be a very exciting fight. But it depends on Fury. He can box with his back foot, he can switch. If he goes to him, he can stop Joshua.”
Joshua is coming off back-to-back decision losses to IBF, IBO, WBA and WBO heavyweight champion Olesnadr Usyk.
Joshua was recently ranked by the WBC, which now allows him to be sanctioned as a voluntary challenger for Fury’s WBC title.
Fury’s co-promoter, Frank Warren, is submitting a fight deal for Joshua and his handlers to review.
“Contracts are on the way. But I’m not going to go into detail about this because we saw what happened last time with people making statements and all of that and it all fell apart,” Warren said.
“This fight won’t start until it’s signed, but everyone wants it to happen. There’s no bump in the road, so hopefully we can get through it quickly, but until it’s signed, it won’t be available. When you are a promoter, you are optimistic. That’s what you do. You’re in the business of trying to make events happen, so we’re all excited about that.”
