This combination of pictures created on December 14, 2020 shows Boxer Tyson Fury (L) during a press conference in Los Angeles, California on January 25, 2020, and British heavyweight boxer Anthony Joshua during a press conference in Ad Diriyah, a Unesco-listed heritage site, outside Riyadh, on December 4, 2019. (Photos by RINGO CHIU and FAYEZ NURELDINE / AFP)
WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua will face each other at some point as that is the fight people want to see, Todd DuBoef, the president of promoters Top Rank Boxing, said on Thursday.
Fury, 33, had been set to face fellow Briton Joshua in Saudi Arabia in August in a unification title fight but an arbitrator ordered Fury to fight Deontay Wilder for a third time instead.
The chances of a fight between the two then dimmed when Joshua lost his WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO belts to Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk in September, prompting Fury’s promoter Frank Warren to say the bout was unlikely to proceed.
“I would love to see Fury against Joshua, Usyk and (Dillian) Whyte,” DuBoef told Sky Sports. “Regardless of the order — Fury vs Joshua is what the people want to see.
“I think Fury and Joshua will fight at least once, because the people want it.”
DuBoef said Joshua would have to raise his level in his planned rematch with Usyk to win back his belts and make the Fury fight happen.
“If Joshua and Usyk do the rematch and Usyk looks sensational again, then maybe the public will say, ‘we want Fury vs Usyk,'” DuBoef said.
“Joshua says he had an off-night. Joshua has to take his career to that elevated state again by erasing his off-night. That is important.”