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Fury’s retirement in doubt as Joshua fight offer looms

Tyson Fury’s boxing promoter Eddie Hearn is prepared to issue an ultimatum to him about facing Anthony Joshua in an all-British bout.

When the “Gypsy King” announced his retirement from boxing last month, it shook the boxing community. In a social media video, he stated, “Hey everyone, let’s keep this brief and to the point. I want to make it known that I’m retiring from boxing. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it; it’s been an absolute thrill. I will conclude by saying this. Dick Turpin had on a disguise. God bless everyone, and I’ll see you all around. Rise!

His announcement came just weeks after suffering his second defeat to Oleksandr Usyk. The news served as a huge blow to Joshua – who had hoped to one day settle his rivalry with Fury. The pair have been tipped to fight for years, and it certainly looked on the cards after the ‘Gypsy King’ lost to the Ukrainian back in December.

Whilst about has never materialised, the Matchroom Boxing supremo is itching to get Fury out of retirement in an attempt to make the blockbuster clash. In an interview with IFL TV, he said, “Maybe there’s a conversation in a week or two weeks or three weeks’ time where we say to Fury, ‘just to let you know, you don’t wanna fight AJ, in the summer, or August, September, because if you want to come out of retirement, now is the time to do it’.”

He added, “The only things I know are AJ wants to fight Fury and he wants to fight for the world heavyweight title, that’s it.”

Joshua’s career is at a crossroads after losing to British rival Daniel Dubois at Wembley back in September. On the topic of his star client, Hearn revealed ‘AJ’ has ‘two fights, three fights max’ left before retirement.

Hearn was speaking passionately about Joshua during an interview with talkSPORT on Thursday. “The plan and the goal for Anthony Joshua, always, from now to the moment he retires, is to try and win the World Heavyweight Championship,” he said.

Joshua’s career is at a crossroads after losing to British rival Daniel Dubois at Wembley back in September. On the topic of his star client, Hearn revealed ‘AJ’ has ‘two fights, three fights max’ left before retirement.

Hearn was speaking passionately about Joshua during an interview with talkSPORT on Thursday. “The plan and the goal for Anthony Joshua, always, from now to the moment he retires, is to try and win the World Heavyweight Championship,” he said.

“To try and become a three-time World Heavyweight Champion.

“So, of course, the other fight, which we know at the moment is not available, is Tyson Fury, he wanted that fight. But, if you said to AJ, ‘what do you want to do most next?’ He would say, ‘I want to fight the winner of Dubois/Parker. I want another shot at a World Heavyweight title.’

“That’s a natural thing. You know, you’ve got [Martin] Bakole, you’ve got [Deontay] Wilder, you’ve got the winner of [Agit] Kabayel against [Zhilei] Zhang. They’re all possible fights, but, you know, you keep hearing about, ‘oh, AJ won’t fight this guy, won’t fight that guy.’ Come on, look at his resume.”

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Sydney Okafor

I'm Sydney Okafor, a broadcast journalist, producer, presenter, voice-over artist and researcher, deeply intrigued by human angle stories in Nigeria and the broader African context.

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