A huge Fury vs Joshua heavyweight showdown is a massive step closer after Anthony Joshua accepted all terms for a December 3 clash with ‘The Gypsy King’.
The all-British superfight is finally close to reality after a whirlwind week following Fury’s offer to defend his WBC and lineal heavyweight titles against Joshua later this year. That because IBF, WBA and WBO king Oleksandr Usyk is not ready to face Fury in a unification showdown until 2023.
Things moved at pace last week, with Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn confirmed he was happy for his fighter to take 40% of the revenue from a bout. The one sticking point appeared to be a date, with team Fury preferring November but Joshua wanting December 17.
Joshua agrees “all terms” for Fury clash
Now though it appears as if a compromise has been reached with December 3 agreed by Joshua (24-3), likely for a venue in the UK.
His management company 258 confirmed the news on Tuesday morning with a post on social media:
Joshua-Fury update:
258 and @MatchroomBoxing can confirm, on behalf of @anthonyjoshua, that we accepted all terms presented to us by Fury’s team for a fight Dec 3rd last Friday.
Due to the Queen’s passing, it was agreed to halt all communication.
We are awaiting a response.
— 258MGT (@258mgt) September 13, 2022
As 258 said, AJ agreed to all of the terms late last week, but an announcement was delayed following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II last Thursday.
Now though it is out in the open and the ball is once again in the court of team Fury. What is clear is that Joshua is not going to turn down the opportunity to become a three-time world heavyweight champion just months after it seemed he was very much on the outside looking in.
AJ of course lost for a second time to Usyk in their Saudi Arabia rematch in August – that was also his third defeat in his last five fights. He is without a title right now.
TV rights a sticking point?
Assuming Fury’s camp are happy to progress, the remaining sticking point would likely be TV and PPV rights. Fury (32-0-1) is aligned to BT Sport in the UK while Joshua recently signed a global deal with streaming platform DAZN.
Hearn said last week he had already engaged in discussions with Queensberry (Fury’s promoters) about how the rights could be shared between the two broadcasters.
