The contracts for Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua could be organised next week granted that 'AJ' gets past Jermaine Franklin.
Joshua hopes to win his first fight in over two years against Jermaine Franklin this Saturday at The O2 arena. The former two-time heavyweight champion lost his belts to Oleksandr Usyk in September 2021 and failed to win them back in their rematch last August, with Joshua's last win coming against Kubrat Pulev in December 2020.
Fury's undisputed heavyweight title fight against Usyk was expected to take place on April 29, but the highly-anticipated fight is now off the table after both parties failed to reach an agreement. It makes the idea of a fight between Fury and Joshua seem plausible for later this year and Eddie Hearn, who promotes Joshua, admitted it's now or never for the all-British affair.
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“I have had talks this week with George Warren and fundamentally the original contract is still in place and we all know that the timing is perfect now, as it happens because of the circumstances with Usyk," Hearn told Daily Mail. "This is the very last chance for this huge fight to happen. I expect to be exchanging pilot contracts with Queensberry soon. Maybe as early as next week. AJ knows there’s a big opportunity. At last. So much at stake now, but he also has his total focus on Franklin.”
Fury and Joshua were scheduled to meet in an undisputed clash two years ago, but the fight was cancelled after Deontay Wilder won an arbitration case to secure a third fight with Fury. Joshua then lost his belts to Usyk later that year whilst Fury knocked out Wilder for the second time. Another proposed meeting between Fury and Joshua was targeted for last December, but the short-notice booking fell through again.
Joshua agreed with his promoter Hearn and thinks now is the right time for his fight with Fury, telling reporters: "There’s no better time! I feel like now with Fury, provided the Usyk doesn’t happen and he doesn’t fight anyone in between, I think he needs me at the minute. He's been a great champion, he's given us a lot of entertaining commentary and fights with Deontay Wilder."
"We've tried to make that fight three times," Joshua added. "That [second one] was signed and sealed, I was actually training for that and then it fell through. Then we had this recent one where I just lost and he gave me a deadline. I took it and told Eddie 'Let's look at the situation' but it was difficult when someone is dictating you and put you under that amount of pressure but I understand his frustration."
