By Shaun Murphy-
Tyson Fury has mocked Anthony Joshua by chanting, ‘AJ is a p***y,’ while on a homecoming tour celebrating his recent trilogy win over Deontay Wilder.
The ‘Gypsy King’ returned to the UK with his WBC heavyweight title after knocking out the American Deontey Wilder in the 11th round, and began to tease the once seemingly invincible heavyweight, after it emerged the Londoner is prepared to accept step aside money in order to allow Usyk and Fury unify the world heavyweight titles.
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Unbeaten Usyk took Joshua’s WBA, IBF and WBO belts back to Ukraine after outclassing the brit last September but is currently bound by contracts to afford Joshua an opportunity to avenge the embarrassing defeat, but
The former multi- belt world champion, who has amassed a fortune of £100m from ring appearances and endorsements, told IFLTV last week he wanted to remembered as a smart businessman, and this meant accepting step aside money if the price is right.
Wold’s heavyweight best : Tyson Fury Image: DAZN
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The statement has led to speculation amongst avid boxing fans that Joshua is dreading the rematch and the grim implications for his career should Usyk repeat the conquest and plunge his career into an unprecedented crisis
Fury has led the ridicule against Joshua and started a chant while on stage on his homecoming tour and encouraged fans to sing along to, ‘AJ is a p***y.’
Eddie Hearn told the DAZN Boxing Show: “I spoke to him yesterday – we’ve had some approaches about this.
“No real deep conversations, but just regards to the concept.
“The concept being you let Fury and Usyk fight for undisputed and you fight the winner.
“Yesterday Anthony said to me, ‘Just to sort of warn you, regarding a step-aside, it’s against everything I believe in. All I wanna do is fight Oleksandr Usyk.
“‘I trust you that if some kind of plan comes up that is a great financial package, but more importantly gives me time to gel with a new trainer and then go into a massive fight for huge money later on in the year, and you think that’s right for my career, then let me know.
“‘But let me warn you, when you do that you’re under threat yourself because I don’t wanna do it.’
The idea of Joshua fighting the winner of a unification fight coming off a loss is contrary to the traditional standards of world championship boxing.
The legacy of world champions has never been defined by them fighting and beating losers- the greats of old always took on fighters coming of winning streaks, not fighters recently humiliated in world championship contests.
Joshua finds himself in a predicament where he either takes a major risk in going straight back into a title fight, or accept step aside money and all the negative aspersions that accompanies such a compromise.
In an ideal world, Joshua would have a warm up fight before meeting Usyk, but championship boxing today and all its hype and mega bucks often calls for an immediate rematch whenever a world champion loses their belt.
Promoter Frank Warren has reached out to strike a deal with Joshua to clear the way for Fury to meet Usyk, after Joshua expressed signs of a compromise to step aside.
Usyk’s promoter has also claimed his man would ‘be happy’ to fight Fury if Joshua agreed.
And Fury commented about Joshua’s claim to be a businessman, saying ”I am not a businessman, I am a spartan. Money doesn’t mean anything to me”, before telling Joshua to get on with it, if he is going to take the step aside money.
“So I want him to step aside so I can absolutely batter Oleksandr Usyk. But if he does, he does and if he doesn’t, he doesn’t.
“But one thing I will say is get the f*** on with it. Either take your money and f*** off or fight the man.
“Either way, one or the other.”
Fury said Joshua had once ridiculed him when he was overweight, and said in a message ”let’s see who loses first out of you and me”. Fury mocked the londoner, saying he has lost twice already.
Step Aside Figure
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has now hinted that the step aside price his man would want is £40m- an excessive amount by any standards.
He said: “We’ve had their team reach out to us.
“Seven figures? A million? If you want to get him not to fight Oleksandr Usyk you have to times that by 40…”
Hearn added: “At the moment there is communication between the two teams to say is it something… and the answer is AJ has not been spoken to about this yet.
“I’ll deal with it and when I feel there’s an opportunity for Anthony and 258 [Management] we’ll sit down with them and present it to them but I won’t do that until it’s the right opportunity.
“If there’s a route and an offer and it makes sense then we’ll see but right now, it’s just conversations between the camps.
“At the moment Anthony Joshua is fighting Oleksandr Usyk and that’s the situation”.
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