By: Sean Crose
Anthony Joshua has agreed to terms for a December 3 heavyweight title fight with Tyson Fury. “Joshua-Fury Update:” 258MGT tweeted Tuesday morning, “258 and @MatchroomBoxing can confirm, on behalf of @anthonyjoshua, that we accepted all the terms Fury’s team offered us to fight on December 3 last Friday. Due to the Queen’s departure, it has been agreed to halt all communications. We are waiting for a response.” Should Team Fury give the green light (as expected since they submitted their initial offer for the Fury-Joshua bout), negotiations will proceed at an alarming rate, especially in this era. negotiating major skirmishes is as fast-paced as it is today.
WBC Heavyweight and Heavyweight Champion, Fury was originally looking to secure a bout with Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight title. Team Usyk wasn’t interested in teamfights too soon after a recent major skirmish and so Fury surprised a lot of people by contacting – publicly – with Joshua for a bout. Team Joshua nodded in agreement to what Team Fury sent as their first offer and now, a few weeks later, the long-awaited showdown between the two famous and towering Britons seems to be about to take place. signed into reality.
The irony, of course, is that it was Joshua who Usyk fought last month. The Ukrainian picked up a second straight win over the Londoners that night, turning down the chance to reclaim the belt Usyk had won from him nearly a year earlier. However, the Joshua team is willing to skip the rest period a boxer usually has after a big fight to rush into a showdown with Fury in December of this year. It could be a stroke of genius. Or crazy. Or perhaps both. Either way, give Joshua and his team credit for accepting such an unusual offer.
As for Fury – he has yet to respond to Joshua accepting his offer (one never knows the finer details in these situations), but if he does, he clearly will is a significant favorite when entering the ring this December. More than just the undefeated man, he’s beaten Deontay Wilder two of three times (their first game ended in a draw) and recently knocked Dillian Whyte into near oblivion with a slam dunk. ended the battle of thunder last spring. However, Joshua is determined. Coupled with the fact that Fury is physically and stylistically different from Usyk, it won’t be easy to knock Joshua out before the fight. After all, Joshua certainly has incredible strength and driving ability. The December 3 fight with Fury will be one of the bigger surprises of the year. One Joshua victory would be another.
