Manuel Charr has claimed he will fight Tyson Fury despite Anthony Joshua having received a contract to face the champion.
The 'Gypsy King' made a U-turn on his plans to retire and was initially targeting an undisputed fight with Oleksandr Usyk. But after the Ukrainian ruled himself out until net year, Fury offered a title shot to long-term rival Joshua who accepted the terms with the fight tentatively set for December 3 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.
Joshua has received the contract from Fury's team for the fight and is currently reviewing it before he is expected to ink the deal and finally settle the scores with Fury. However heavyweight contender Charr has other ideas posting on Instagram, with the caption: "I promise you on December 3, I will smash your pretty face you big dosser. I will focus on this green and gold belt coming home."
Charr had already issued a call-out to Fury last month after the 'Gypsy King' began to look like he would miss out on his shot for all the marbles against Usyk. He said in a video: " Tyson Fury, take the fight. I'm ready to knock you out. Take my challenge. I'm ready for you, man. No excuses."
Fury quickly hit back in his own video, shouting: "Diamond Boy, I've got a certain little middleweight that I've got to put that fist through first. However, if he doesn't want no smoke, you can surely get it. Pressure will break diamonds."
Charr and Fury have previously clashed in public with the pair nearly sparking a brawl while both in Germany in 2017, with Fury at the time out of action from the ring. However Charr looks unlikely to replace Joshua this time with the heavyweight star not ranked by the WBC so would be unable to fight.
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Meanwhile Joshua has received a No.6 ranking from the governing body and would be in a position to look for redemption again after suffering back-to-back losses to Usyk. It still remains expected that 'AJ' will get his shot at Fury, with the champion's promoter Frank Warren insisting the fight is 90 per cent done.
Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn has revealed the contract is being checked with minor details to sort before a signature completes the deal. We received the contract last night [September 15] which we’re now reviewing and going back," he told DAZN. "There’s a lot to be added in to that contract, but at least we’ve got one. It’s early days, we’re up for that fight.
"We’ve made it clear – if everybody’s serious you’ll see that fight. Absolutely this year – that’s the only choice we had, really. You know, they want to get AJ when he’s weak, they want to feel like this is a great time to fight him."
