Tyson Fury will fight former WBA 'regular' heavyweight champion Mahmoud Charr on December 3 in Cardiff if Anthony Joshua hasn't signed a fight deal by 5pm.
The world heavyweight champion has set Joshua a firm deadline to sign a contract for the pair to make the biggest fight in British boxing history, which Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn has branded as impossible due to legal hold-ups. The initial deal was set out as a non-negotiable 60-40 split with the date coming two weeks prior to when the former champion would have preferred.
And after slight alterations were needed to be made to the deal, the contract is currently being looked over by lawyers. The nature of the legal necessities in signing such a big money deal, which makes it very difficult to have done in time for this evening's deadline.
With the deal now close to being pulled by Fury's side, the champion has offered the fight to Charr, telling the German in an Instagram post: "If he don't sign today you are in big G, and you can show them how a real man throws down."
Charr has been calling for a fight with Fury all throughout the build-up for a potential Joshua bout, and Hearn believes that was the fight that the heavyweight champion has been eyeing up all along. In an Instagram video, Charr said: "Salam Alaikum Tyson Fury, you know and I know that Anthony p**** Joshua will not sign the paper tomorrow. Take my challenge, I'm ready for you."
Hearn expressed his frustration over the weekend when he told iFL TV that there is no possible way that Joshua can sign the contract by today. The initial contract, he claims, took nine days to be sent, and was not close to what Matchroom were prepared to sign, thus needing further tweaks which must be ironed out in a period longer than the 48 hours since Fury made his ultimatum.
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" Tyson Fury has no intention of taking this fight if that's the route he's going to take," Hearn said of the new deadline . "Tyson Fury said he's retired, Tyson Fury said he was giving his money to the homeless... And now Tyson Fury is saying he's walking away from the fight if we don't sign on Monday.
"Well guess what, we ain't signing on Monday; we're having a meeting on Monday to discuss various points of the contract. We waited nine days for the contract and we've been working very hard with Queensberry, no-ones been messing round, and we have meetings with BT, with DAZN, with Queensberry, to go through the process and get this done but it ain't happening on Monday.
"If you're true to your word, which you never are, then walk away. The public know, you're going to fight Manuel Charr on December 3; it's a joke. so don't waste our time because we've spent a lot of time on this fight already. If you don't want the fight, just walk away. I don't think Tyson and Queensberry are on the same page; they can't be."
