Tyson Fury has seemingly called out Anthony Joshua’s apparent refusal to step aside and let the two-time world heavyweight champion fight Oleksandr Usyk, as he taunted his fellow Brit while on stage at a homecoming event.
Following his victory over Deontay Wilder, the trilogy fight between the pair, Fury now holds a record of 31 wins from 32 fights - the other being the draw in his first encounter with Wilder.
And following Usyk’s win over Joshua in September to pick up the WBA, WBO and IBF belts, there have been calls for a unification fight between the Ukrainian and Fury, with Usyk’s camp recently saying he was ready for that fight if Joshua was willing to step aside and wait to fight the winner.
It appears, then, that Fury is impatient for the unifcation fight to take place and is trying to goad his countryman into opting out of the rematch which has already been triggered.
Fury led fans in Manchester into a repeated chant of “AJ is a p****”, with plenty joining in as evidenced by a video taken at the event.
Promoter Eddie Hearn says he has fielded calls over the potential for a rearrangement whereby Joshua steps aside to fight the winner of Fury-Usyk later in 2022, rather than attempting to immediately win his lost belts back off the latter.
He doesn’t seem to be fully on-board with the idea, though, says Hearn - whose own position could be in jeopardy if he pushes the issue.
“Yesterday Anthony said to me, ‘Just to sort of warn you, regarding a step-aside, it’s against everything I believe in,’” he told DAZN.
“‘All I wanna do is fight Oleksandr Usyk. I trust you that if some kind of plan comes up that is a great financial package, but more importantly gives me time to gel with a new trainer and then go into a massive fight for huge money later on in the year, and you think that’s right for my career, then let me know.
“‘But let me warn you, when you do that you’re under threat yourself because I don’t wanna do it.’”
