Fury raises fresh doubts over unification bout, vows to knock out Joshua

WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury continues to express confidence in his ability to make easy work of unified champion, Anthony Joshua, not missing a moment to let it be known that he thinks Joshua is a hype job, writes badlefthook.com.

Fury admits that he’s not certain whether or not a fight against Joshua will come off, but says if it does, he’s not at all concerned with what Joshua’s bringing to the table.

“Either way, if that Joshua fight happens it doesn’t go the distance — he gets knocked out,” Fury said. “He is no good to me, none of these fighters is. He’s too slow, he’s too muscle-bound, he works on too much weight lifting and not enough speed. Too much power, no speed. If he holds a handful of stones and throws them at me, he may have a chance of landing something. But those big hooks, no chance.”

Fight fans were led to believe that the Canelo-Saunders event in America on May 8 would provide the perfect platform for the announcement of the Joshua-Fury undisputed mega-fight, yet it didn’t happen, and the silence has extended even further into the following week.

There’s been a location and date revealed – Saudi Arabia on August 14 – but the all-important binding contract has still Fury’s promoter, Frank Warren, is also not sure the fight will hold.

Warren said candidly, “I’ve hardly made any statements, every time I get asked a question I say what the reality is. I’ve been accused of being negative and that I don’t want the fight, which I find pretty stupid really, but what is there to say until the contract’s signed?”

He continued to elaborate on the ongoing negotiations, “You can only sign a contract when all the parties agree on it, and we’ve got a contract at the moment that all the parties don’t agree on. And we’ve got a contract at the moment that Tyson Fury will not sign.

“One of the things in that contract that will enable us to get over the hump is the guarantees, so if the guarantees are there then it’s not a problem, and I’m not even getting down the road of where the fight is going to take place, who the negotiations are with… because it’s all moot at the moment.

“We’re now how many months on? Four months on, we are where we are, every day there’s gonna’ be announcement but until we agree on the terms, until Tyson Fury, who we represent, until he’s happy with the terms, it won’t get signed, and he’s not happy at the moment. I don’t know what Anthony Joshua’s position is because we have nothing to do with that.”

He went on to reveal in further detail just what it is in the contract that Tyson Fury isn’t satisfied with, “What it is, is a guarantee for the amount of money that is being paid; until there is a guarantee until Tyson is satisfied that the money that’s in that contract is guaranteed by the bank, then it ain’t gonna’ get signed.”

Despite the uncertainty around the deal, the talks persevere to hopefully reach an agreement soon.

Fury has been seen attending meetings with his US promoter Bob Arum, with rumours of the trilogy with Deontay Wilder being revisited.

Warren stressed that his heavyweight charge is not going to wait around for much longer, even narrowing it down to a “Couple of days” and explained why: “Because we are going to get to the stage where he’ll want to fight, and I know Bob Arum in the States is talking about if he wants to fight in the States, that’ll be in July, so this will need to be settled very quickly one way or another.”