Tyson Fury, the WBC heavyweight champion, challenged Anthony Joshua to a December Battle of Britain on social media on Monday. Joshua has since accepted Fury’s challenge.
Joshua used his Twitter account to respond to Fury’s actions, “Yea calm. I don’t do the online discussions just for clout, so if you’re really about it shout.”
@258mgt (Joshua’s management). I’ll be ready in December.”
A phone call was initiated by Joshua’s public acceptance of the offer between Hearn and Fury’s managers.
He stated on a Tuesday appearance on talkSPORT, “
“I had a chat last night with George Warren from Queensberry (Promotions).
“I’d love to get really excited about this because I think it’s the fight I get stopped on the street for more than any fight that could be made.
“It’s a fight AJ has wanted for a long time.
“Don’t forget we signed for this fight last year before the court arbitration forced the Deontay Wilder fight for Tyson Fury.
“It’s an interesting one because last week he retired, then he’d only come back to fight Usyk, then he made an offer to Derek Chisora, then he wanted half a billion, then he retired again, then he’s fighting Usyk in December and now he’s fighting Joshua.
“The message is quite clear from Joshua; we don’t want to get in a backwards and forwards, we want the fight.”
After striking a spectacular two-bout contract in March 2020, Fury and Joshua were set to battle each other last year.
However, Deontay Wilder, the former WBC heavyweight champion, derailed the fight by winning his arbitration for a trilogy fight with Tyson Fury.
Following back-to-back defeats to Oleksandr Usyk, the most recent of which occurred in Saudi Arabia last month, Joshua is currently preparing to make a comeback.
But he’ll gladly risk his professional future in a spur-of-the-moment domestic altercation with his longtime foe, Fury.
According to Hearn, “It’s the fight he’s wanted for a long time.
“We had plans after the Usyk defeat to come back in December and then go again in March, get active and get the rhythm going again and then try fight for the world heavyweight title.
“But I know having spoken to Joshua and as you saw with his message that if that fight is there and they’re serious, which I have my doubts.
“But listen, let’s for the good of trying to make it happen let’s believe Tyson Fury.”
If Fury is genuinely serious about facing the British-Nigerian, Matchroom Boxing CEO Hearn wants him to deliver a draft of the proposed fight agreement.
He stated: “I said to George Warren last night, ‘Get the details over to us, get the offer over to us. I will take it to Joshua, he’s ready to go.”
We weren’t expecting this chance, but it’s a tremendous chance to compete for the heavyweight world championship in the biggest fight in boxing.
“And we will definitely look at it”
Hearn expresses uncertainty on Fury’s offer, adding, “The cynic in me, in boxing, this smells of, Oh, we couldn’t agree the Joshua deal so I’m fighting this bloke you never heard of instead.”
“No one else was available, I tried to make the Joshua fight’ etc, etc. But like I said, let’s take the cynic away and let’s see what we get back from the Fury camp because we’re ready to discuss it and we’re ready to look at that fight for sure.”
