Tyson Fury has often referred to Anthony Joshua as a “bodybuilder,” a bodybuilder who can’t fight. Well, Joshua, in ditching his usual nice guy persona, has called Fury a “fat slob,” and a fat slob who can’t fight. Speaking with TNT Sports Boxing YouTube Channel as his must-win fight with Otto Wallin inches ever closer, the former two-time heavyweight champ gave Fury a big taste of his own medicine.
“He just looked like a fat slob that just can’t fight,” AJ said when speaking about Fury’s tough fight with boxing debutant Francis Ngannou back in October. “He says that bodybuilders can’t fight, but he got smacked up by one. I’ve always wanted to get in the ring with him. He does a lot of talking, calls me a bodybuilder and stuff, but I want to marvel at the African power [of Ngannou] – he’s a bodybuilder, steps in and smacks him up for me.”
Fans still crave a fight between Fury and Joshua, with plenty of us still hoping the fight, which would be an enormous Battle of Britain affair, can happen. But time is running out, and Joshua doesn’t think the eventual winner of the Fury-Oleksandr Usyk rivalry will remain as four-belt unified heavyweight champ for too long.
“What will happen is that Usyk and Fury are now in position to compete for the undisputed, and once they complete the undisputed, the belts will get split up again,” Joshua said. “And I feel probably it would take me about five to six years to go through and get all the belts, beat all the independent champions. That will probably take me on to being [age] 40, 41, so it’s probably not in my timeframe.”
What will hopefully be in Joshua’s timeframe, should he beat Wallin (and there is a rematch clause in place) is a fight between he and Deontay Wilder. We’ve been waiting for that fight just about as long as we’ve been waiting for Joshua-Fury. And if Wilder also does the business on December 23, against Joseph Parker, the two former champions will hopefully get it on next year.
And some fans feel a Wilder-Joshua fight would be even bigger than Fury-Usyk. Could it be that Joshua’s defining fight is still to come?