Anthony Joshua On Fury – “Let Whole Boxing World Down”

Unified Heavyweight World champ Anthony Joshua is still smarting from his proposed bout with WBC champ Tyson Fury being derailed by Deontay Wilder’s arbitration win enforcing a third fight with Fury in July. And, Brit was speaking out Monday continuing his “blame game” against the “Gypsy King.”

Joshua spoke exclusively to Sky Sports in the U.K. mid-day Monday about the failing of the Fury mega-bout and continue to maintain that he will follow through with a mandatory title defense against WBO #1 contender and former Cruiserweight World champ, Oleksandr Usyk,

☹️"HIS TEAM LET THE BOXING WORLD DOWN"👎@anthonyjoshua has blamed @Tyson_Fury for the breakdown of their undisputed championship fight but believes it can resurrected for later this year🤞

📖Read more: https://t.co/hvNW8ElLKQ pic.twitter.com/vMQs6BKhp1

— Sky Sports Boxing (@SkySportsBoxing) June 21, 2021

“Unfortunately his team let the whole boxing world down,” Joshua said in the virtual interview. “I will still be here, still ready to put on a show.

“End of the year. Let me get past Usyk first. But with or without Usyk in my life, I will fight Fury….Usyk doesn’t determine the Fury fight. The Fury fight has to happen. It’s a big fight, bigger than boxing, bigger than the belts.”

As we wrote last week, Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has said for the last three weeks, including most recently to broadcast partner DAZN, that he believes the Joshua – Usyk fight probably for September will be signed soon.

Of course, most fight fans and observers, heard that week after week and month after month earlier this year. This, when Hearn was unable to get Fury and his management team to agree for a potential Undisputed Heavyweight title fight in August in Saudi Arabia.

Instead the clock essentially ran out, when a U.S. arbitrator ruled that Fury will have to fight former champion Deontay Wilder a third bout. That will now be in Las Vegas on July 24th.

Joshua and Usyk is proposed for Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which is a 65,000 seat state-of-the-art facility just north of London that was just redone in the spring of 2019. It not only houses the English Premier League “Spurs” soccer team, but also has a multi-year deal with the NFL to play at least two of its games in that Stadium over the course of the next four years.

Joshua, 24-1, was originally going to fight his IBF mandatory Kutbrat Pulev in the stadium last July. However, the Covid 19 pandemic shut down the sport and scuttled all plans with fans, especially in the U.K. Joshua eventually fought and kayoed Pulev in December at the Wembley arena in front of limited fans.

As for Usyk, he was last in action in the same Wembley Arena with no fans last October decisioning Dereck Chisora. That was the unbeaten Ukranian’s second bout at Heavyweight and he and his team have been waiting for weeks for Hearn to finalize a deal for his challenge to Joshua’s titles.

The WBO has threatened Joshua with potentially stripping him of their world title, if he did not fight Usyk soon. Hearn has repeatedly asked for extensions to get a deal done.