Tyson Fury’s promoter Frank Warren admits a heavyweight title unification fight with Anthony Joshua is unlikely to hold this year, 2020.
The much-anticipated Battle of Britain seemed to be taking place later this year after Fury’s overwhelming seventh-round TKO victory over Deontay Wilder last month, which saw Fury crowned the WBC heavyweight champion.
Fury and Joshua are just a step away from facing each other later in the year. Both are just waiting to win their upcoming fights against Wilder and Kubrat Pulev, respectively, to share the ring. However, the coronavirus epidemic has compromised what would be the biggest fight in the history of British boxing.
Now, this global pandemic has led to Fury’s trilogy fight with Wilder be postponed to October. That’s to say, ‘The Gypsy King’ would have to make a quick turnaround to take part in the end-of-year clash with Joshua, which is near impossible.
Also, Fury’s promoter, Frank Warren, concedes the turnaround would be too much for the newly crowned WBC King.
When asked if the delayed fight with Wilder means Fury won’t fight again in 2020, the Queensbury Promotion chief answered: “Exactly!” “That will push that back to some time in February if that is the case,” he added.
He further admitted that the postponement of the Wilder fight is less than ideal for Fury’s hope of unifying the division later in the year, as he said: “We need the time to do the Wilder fight justice in terms of promotion, it won’t go on till the autumn.”
He continued: “The problem you have is also the training camps if they can’t do them properly, they can’t get in sparring partners from around the world. Fighters also need a date to be fully focussed on. They want to be at their peak for a date, so they need a date to train towards; we can’t give them any dates,” he said.
He reiterates that: “It is a blow as we would have liked to have got it done in the summer, but it is what it is. The whole country is in the same boat; everything has gone on hold.”
Meanwhile, the trilogy fight between Fury and Wilder will reportedly take place in Las Vegas on 3 October 2020.
