Tony Bellew has claimed Anthony Joshua’s team have turned their focus toward making a fight with Tyson Fury rather than Deontay Wilder.
It has been assumed that Joshua’s next bout with be against Wilder, with that heavyweight clash initially pencilled in for December in Saudi Arabia but then pushed back to January.
Joshua is on the comeback trail after back-to-back defeats to Oleksandr Usyk. The 33-year-old beat Jermaine Franklin earlier this year, before stopping Robert Helenius in the seventh round last month.
Whether a bout with Wilder can now be made remains to be seen, but promoter Eddie Hearn has repeatedly insisted that remains the priority.
Bellew though, who was promoted by Hearn during his career and works for DAZN as a pundit on Matchroom events, believes the long-awaited bout between Joshua and Fury could be more realistic.
“I am hearing rumours that talks have stopped at the minute [with Wilder] and [Joshua’s team are] looking more towards Fury vs AJ again instead of AJ and Wilder,” Bellew told Bitcoin Casinos.
“The talk is of another fight going to Africa, which would be absolutely incredible. Rumble in the Jungle all over again in Zaire or something along those lines.”
Hearn was quizzed on those comments and while he remained upbeat about the possibility of his man facing Wilder next, he did not rule out an all-British mega-fight.
“Don’t be completely shocked to see AJ-Fury early next year,” he told Boxing Social.
“There are definite conversations about Fury-Usyk, you know the conversations about AJ-Wilder. Anything is possible at this stage.”
