Tyson Fury’s superfight with Anthony Joshua is “dead in the water” and will not happen this summer, according to Fury’s promoter Bob Arum, who says they have run out of time to complete negotiations.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn said on Thursday he was “100 per cent confident” it would happen amid concerns over delays in finalising the Saudi Arabia super fight. Reports this week suggested the deal had switched from a two-fight contract to a single bout and that negotiations were close to completion for the fight to be staged in Saudi Arabia later this year, with each fighter due to receive a minimum £75m.
Arum, though, believes it will not now be possible to complete negotiations in time and has called for the two men to arrange other fights for the summer.
Arum told the Telegraph: “It will take months for the Saudis to do their due diligence on such a huge deal. It is not just a site fee, there are ancillary demands from the Saudis stretching into the broadcast deals and other things. It could take months for it all to play out. It could even take until 2022 the way it looks right now.
“The fight in July or August is dead in the water as far as we are concerned. The two fighters need to go and have other fights this summer while the negotiations for that fight in the Middle East conclude.
“It is absurd what Hearn is saying that it is a done deal. If we had just done a site deal without all the other complications that have arisen, we would have a fight by now. Tyson Fury is fuming about it and is refusing to keep waiting.”
The fight will be the richest in British boxing history, with the two men holding all four of the major world titles in the heavyweight division between them.
However, Fury could now turn his attention to a trilogy fight with the American Deontay Wilder, whom he dethroned for the WBC world title in February 2020. Wilder stoked the flames of a potential trilogy fight with Fury recently, posting on Instagram: “The action of harming someone because they have harmed oneself; Revenge.”
Additional reporting by PA
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