Boxing

ANTHONY JOSHUA revealed why he did not call out Tyson Fury after beating Kubrat Pulev – but this time vowed: ‘I’ll take his belt’.
AJ set up a historic undisputed title decider after knocking out Pulev in round nine.

Anthony Joshua pictured after beating Kubrat Pulev

Tyson Fury and AJ are on course to fight next year Credit: PA:Press Association

Afterwards, he skated around the question on fighting Fury and instead insisted he was more interested in the WBC belt his long-time rival owns.
Opening up about the post-fight interview, Joshua told Sky Sports: “I basically said, ‘If Tyson Fury is the man with the belts, Tyson Fury is the man I want.’
“That basically says, ‘I’ll fight anyone who has that belt, there’s no problem with the person.’
“I just want to go for the undisputed championship. That’s what I was trying to say that night.

“He took it how he wanted to take it. I’ve never turned away from a fight. I’ve never announced a fight and not showed up.
“I’ve fought six to seven champions, in my short career. Tyson Fury is another one of them.
“There’s no reason as to why I see him any different to any other. If Tyson Fury is down, I’m ready, I’m keen.
“I’ve got four of the major belts, he’s got one. I’ll take that one from him.”

Joshua, 31, and Fury, 32, this year verbally agreed a two-fight deal, which for the first time in heavyweight history would put the WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO belts all on the line.
Now, it is the job of their management and promotional teams to draw up the contracts and put a deal in place.
But with the coronavirus pandemic continuing to prove unpredictable, Joshua would rather have the fight no earlier than June.
He said: “I think, maybe June, end of June.
“It needs a bit of time, because the pandemic’s unpredictable at the minute because we don’t know what’s happening.
“With a little more time, it gives us more time to prepare and plan.
“So right now, I said to the team let’s get ahead of the curb and start putting things in place now.
“They’re doing a great job. I promise you conversations and face-to-face meetings are happening with representations of my team and Tyson Fury’s team.”

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ANTHONY JOSHUA wants to take Tyson Fury’s head clean off his shoulders after just missing out on the Rolex from his wrist.
Back in 2010, when 20-year-old AJ was a raw novice less than two years into his amateur training, the Gypsy King visited his Finchley ABC gym for some sparring.

Anthony Joshua (pictured celebrated his win over Kubrat Pulev) has sent a warning to Tyson FuryCredit: AP

Anthony Joshua is on a collision course with WBC heavyweight champion Tyson FuryCredit: PA

Fury said he planned to take it easy on the unknown kid but Joshua heard about the reward on offer for KOing him and caught him with a stunning uppercut that was the very start of their rivalry.
Ahead of their potential £500-million two-fight 2021 deal, AJ recalled: “Before that spar, Fury said ‘if anyone can beat me up or knock me out, they can have my Rolex watch’.
“All I wanted was his Rolex watch. I was hungry then and I am even hungrier now.
“It was a good spar and I didn’t really know too much back then, it was just passion.

“Now I have some boxing IQ and passion, I know it will be a great fight.
“There was a Rolex on offer then but now there is an even bigger pot of gold at the end of this rainbow and I want to take his head off his shoulders when that fight happens.
“He knows about my uppercut, he knew about it from back then. Trust me, he knows what’s coming, he knows.”
Fury has been the master of mind games in the build-up to most of his fights, getting under the skin of brilliant rivals like Wladimir Klitschko and Deontay Wilder.

Even with Joshua, the 32-year-old undefeated WBC champ flips between heaping praise on his old foe and slaughtering his ability and calling him names.
But AJ insists he will use their first press conference to raise questions about Fury’s supposed good-guy public persona with a UKAD doping case still hanging over him from that brilliant 2015 over Klitschko.
After a long pause and a mischievous laugh, Joshua said: “I am saving all of that for the first press conference, they are all his problems.
“With the UKAD situation, every win he has had has had drama around it.
“Whether it was to do with Klitschko or Wilder, there is always drama.
“I am a straight-up warrior, I just want to fight him. I don’t care about anything in his body.”

Anthony Joshua lashes out at Tyson Fury after his rival’s comments after Pulev fight More

ANTHONY JOSHUA is fighting to keep amateur British boxing alive as payback for the sport keeping him out of prison.
The WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight champion of the world is making a sizable donation to the English, Welsh and Scottish federations after the Government snubbed the sport in its £300million pandemic bailout.

Anthony Joshua is helping keep amateur boxing afloat amid the Covid-19 pandemicCredit: ©Mark Robinson

The Brit credits the sport with keeping him out of prisonCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

While the likes of motorsports and badminton cashed in, hand-to-mouth clubs in some of the nation’s most deprived areas – that offer so much more than exercise classes – have been forced to close.
So AJ, who copped a community service order in 2011 for possession of cannabis before mentor and Finchley ABC boss Sean Murphy saved his life, is going into his own pockets to save the grassroots sport.
Speaking over Zoom at the North London community hub he still trains at, Joshua said: “What would have happened if Finchley had been closed down back then? My trainer Sean is here and he says I would probably have been doing time.
“I wasn’t a bad kid! Sean says I just had some bad people around me!

“I remember I got kicked off the Olympic squad in 2011 and I gave up on boxing.
“I started going back to my local area, I started smoking again. Sean rang my mum and said ‘Where’s your son? He’s messing around. Get him back here to the gym’.
“That shows how important it is not just to have the gyms open, but access to people from an older generation who can give you a sense of wisdom, a sense of belonging and guidance. That’s also important.”
Joshua and his management team are deep in the process of negotiating a two-fight deal with fellow Brit Tyson Fury, that could generate up to £500million, with hope that at least one of the bouts will happen in front of 90,000 fans at Wembley.

The rivalry would be the biggest in British boxing history and bring windfalls to businesses all over the country.
And AJ wants the politicians, who diverted funds to horse and greyhound racing and ice hockey ahead of amateur boxing, to remember where our Olympic fight heroes and money-spinning world champions come from.
“Professional boxing has found a way to survive and that’s brilliant,” he said.
“But without the amateur system, the grassroots clubs, there are no Olympians and without them there are no world champions in the country.
“You’ve got myself and Tyson Fury, two of the world’s best heavyweights in the UK, and whether you’re from a privileged background or not, you want to see that fight.
“This is the conversation we’re having, people in power, it’s going to take someone like me to start the conversation that it’s important to put funding into sport and boxing.
“Boxing produces some of the best athletes this country has ever seen.
“If me and Tyson Fury fight, which I’m sure is going to happen, it’s going to be one of the biggest sporting events in this country since the World Cup.

“I’m in the grassroots gym which made me and it’s struggling. There was £300million given to sport and, in grassroots sport, just £3,000 makes a difference.
“Hopefully this will raise the eyebrows of the people in power and next time they will put some money towards boxing.”
After blowing away Kubrat Pulev on December 12, AJ refused to make a song and dance about the potential Fury fight, having been burned by the failed campaign to box Deontay Wilder when he had the WBC crown.
But Fury has been on a couple of TV talkshows, singing and dancing for Jonathan Ross, trying to talk up the fight.
AJ won’t play the fame game but vows the real talk is happening behind the scenes and the only announcement to believe will come from his lips.
He said: “I promise you conversations are happening. We’re definitely looking at the landscape. But until you hear it from me, don’t buy into anything.
“I’m serious about the fight so when I announce it you’ll know it’s real.
“That’s why I’m taking my time, because there has been a lot of back-and-forth for years.
“I’ve been chasing this round to undisputed and, when the time is right, I’ll announce it and I’ll have my mind fully focused on the job at hand.”

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ANTHONY JOSHUA’S win over Kubrat Pulev hit over 600,000 buys on UK pay-per-view ahead of his potential mega-fight with Tyson Fury.
The Athletic claim AJ’s ninth-round knockout over the Bulgarian to successfully defend his IBF title could ultimately reach 700k.

Anthony Joshua’s win over Kubrat Pulev generated over 600,000 buysCredit: PA:Press Association

Sources: The Anthony Joshua-Kubrat Pulev heavyweight title fight generated in excess of 600,000 buys on Sky Sport PPV in the U.K. Numbers still rolling in and could approach 700,00 when all said and done.
— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) December 22, 2020

Yet the £24.95 record-equaling priced win over Pulev shifted less than half than the most bought UK PPVS ever – with Joshua occupying all of the top three slots.
The Olympic Gold medalist’s last outing in the ring – his triumph over Andy Ruiz Jr broke Sky’s record with more than 1.6million buys.
The monster rematch in Saudi Arabia eclipsed the previous record of 1.5m purchases – for AJ’s thrilling win over Wladimir Klitschko in 2017.
While the Watford boxer’s success over Joseph Parker a year later is down in third after selling 1.45m buys.

The 31-year-old’s latest win has cleared the way for a potential two-fight deal worth a staggering £500million with Fury.
Eddie Hearn recently confirmed that the all-British heavyweight showdown between AJ and the Gypsy King has been verbally agreed.
An obstacle preventing the deal is the fact Oleksandr Usyk is currently the mandatory challenger for Joshua’s WBO belt.

Hearn has previously admitted that both fighters could ditch their belts, from the four major sanctioning bodies, if they try to block the undisputed decider.

Hearn said: “We’ve just got to be a bit careful because you may be on the verge of saying: ‘Lets just get rid of politics right now.
“Let’s just drop all the belts because if we lose one belt, we might as well lose them all. We will do whatever we can to make sure that every belt in boxing is on the line in the Tyson Fury fight.
“What we won’t be is held to ransom and we won’t let politics get involved in a fight that boxing needs.”

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