Tyson Fury says he’s giving Anthony Joshua one final chance to sign for a fight on Dec. 3, which if it happens is expected to take place at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium.
Fury had originally set Monday as a deadline, and when 5 pm BST came and went, he declared that the negotiations were over. Frank Warren, Fury’s promoter, said he felt the fight could still get done, and Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn chimed in that he felt the same at the time on Tuesday.
Fury says today that Warren did convince him to give it a couple more days, but that today is the absolute last chance.
Here’s what Fury said on Instagram:
“Where do we start? The deadline was Monday. Frank Warren asked me and convinced me to let it carry on for another couple of days. Today’s Thursday, and even though I knew you wouldn’t sign this contract, I allowed Frank to continue doing meetings with your team and the broadcasters and all that, and now we have BT (Sport) and DAZN and ESPN all on the same page. They are happy with everything, they’re all happy, ready to rock n’ roll.
“You guys asked for a lot of stuff. You wanted to be co-promoters when you’re a voluntary challenger. Guess what? I said give it to them, let them be co-promoters. You wanted full transparency even though you are not an equal shareholder in this party. You know what I said? Give them full transparency, I’ve got nothing to hide, I’m not trying to rob anybody. I’ve never robbed anybody of a penny in me life. So now you’ve got full transparency, everything’s clean and fair.
“Now Joshua, the ball is really in your court, son. Everybody is done. If you’re a man and if you’ve got any sort of dignity and pride about you, you’ll get this contract signed today. This is it — there is no more days, weeks, months. You’ve had the contract now for over two weeks and you still haven’t signed it.
“Show the public that you’re really the big coward that I know you are and don’t sign it. I don’t care either way if you sign it or you don’t. It makes no difference to me at all. You’re a beaten man and I’m a world champion. I’m chucking you a massive bone, but I know I can punch your face in, so I’m willing to give you an opportunity.
“There’s nothing more to do. Everyone is happy. Get your team onto mine, they will be available all day, like they’ve been available the last two weeks. Get this contract signed today, you big pussy, and let the British fans have what they want. There’s no more running. You have to fight me. You cannot escape the furious coming, bitch!”
As for where we go from here, I mean, we really actually are getting to the point that if this is going to happen on Dec. 3, you want it done now. Signed, officially, fully set in stone, because Fury (32-0-1, 23 KO) clearly wants to break his convincing and lengthy retirement and fight in December, and if he’s going to do that — either Dec. 3, 10, or 17 — then it’s time to get things officially set and get specific preparations underway very soon.
So while very few bought Monday as the drop-dead, no-return date, even a few more days right now honestly could be it. The latest you’d want to stretch this at all is until next week, and that’s also not taking into account a few other factors, such as:
- Fury’s account of the contract and negotiations is, of course, Fury’s side of the story, and nobody’s single side of the story is ever really the whole story, especially not in boxing.
- Fury may simply be annoyed by what he felt was a good offer for a big fight not just being accepted, especially by now. An annoyed Fury is a Fury that could just move on and fight someone else, even if a few more days really might push it over the line.
So we’ll see. But today is, again, supposedly the day.