Anthony Joshua's next chance at a world title fight with Tyson Fury could have to wait until the end of next year as the Manchester native has set himself a four-fight hit list.
Joshua and Fury's fight talks this year were inches away from resulting in a December showdown, but the contracts couldn't be worked out in time and the Brits are now set for different fights later this year. Fury is going to face Derek Chisora in a trilogy bout, while Joshua's next opponents has yet to be named.
And with this latest effort at getting the fight over the line being called off, it now appears that Joshua could have to wait a considerable length of time for his next effort at the world heavyweight title. He has already lost twice to Oleksandr Usyk for the unified WBA, WBO and IBF belts, and Fury's WBC title was his one route back to the world level.
Now, Fury's next three fights have been laid out by his promoter as Chisora in December, Usyk in the late spring with a summer rematch and then an end of year bout with Joe Joyce. It's likely that with a couple of solid wins that Joshua could earn his way into that third fight spot where Joyce is currently pencilled in, but he would need to impress and possibly earn a mandatory position.
“I’m going to have three fights next year," Fury said yesterday at a press conference to announce his controversial bout with Chisora. "Starting in February with Usyk and if he wants a rematch, he can have a rematch. Then someone at the back end of the year, [Deontay] Wilder, if he’s mandatory, Joe Joyce, [Daniel] Dubois, there’s plenty of British beef to go after.”
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Fury isn't keen to offer another opportunity to Joshua after this year's bout fell through. They had previously agreed to a 2021 meeting in Saudi Arabia that the Manchester native had to pull out from after being ordered to face Wilder for a third time, with Joshua losing his mandatory defence to Usyk in the meantime.
“The reason I believe is I didn’t think they wanted it to happen, they never had any intentions of it happening beyond seven days,” Fury said. “The first week, I think they were interested in the fight . Then he realized the daunting task and he got talked out of it by his people and himself. If that wasn’t the reason, he’d be here now instead of Derek, but he’s not
“I’ve no more to say about the big useless dosser, he doesn’t have any belts. He doesn’t have anything I need and there will not be a fight between him and me ever, full stop, bang. You can put an exclamation mark there as well. There’s just too much messing. I’m not going over it again, they are too hard to deal with. No more wasting time with idiots.”
