Anthony Joshua has suggested that talks over a four-man heavyweight tournament based in Saudi Arabia are back on.
According to reports, Saudi had the intention of putting on the undisputed fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk as the main event.
That was with the intention of putting Joshua vs. Wilder on, as the co-main event. Although no formal offer has been made in that regard, Joshua confirmed that talks have rekindled once again.
‼️ Anthony Joshua has revealed that Saudi Arabia now want to revive the idea of staging Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk and AJ vs Deontay Wilder on the same night: “The goal's to have Usyk and Fury compete for undisputed, with myself and Wilder. It'll be a great event.” [@SkySports] pic.twitter.com/JxFnmNOIPW
— Michael Benson (@MichaelBensonn) August 24, 2023
“The goal is to have Usyk and Fury compete for the undisputed heavyweight championship, myself and Deontay Wilder, two big punchers, great fighters, been to the top of the mountain, slug it out and may the best man win. It’ll be a great event potentially. Wait to see what happens and then finalize the devil in the detail,” Joshua
Nevertheless, boxing fans have had to wait for the fight since Joshua beat Wladimir Klitschko all the way back in 2017. Attempts at making the fight failed in 2019 when the undisputed fight was on the line.
Meanwhile, Fury and Usyk has not been made despite Frank Warren previously claiming it was a 50-50 fight financially.
“You can always pull these interviews up, because everyone does it on me all the time. Frank Warren, a few weeks ago on TalkSPORT, said ‘it’s an easy fight to make, it’s 50/50.
“I honestly think that when Frank was going to make this fight, he thought it would be 50/50. And I did. But Tyson had other ideas,” Hearn
As such, boxing fans were not convinced until an official announcement was made.
Social Media Reaction
I’ll believe it when I see it.
— Billy D. (@4DTOUGH) August 24, 2023
Yeah not getting my hopes up lmao
— BrwnBandit (@BrwnBandit) August 24, 2023
They keep talking about it, I'll be shocked if it happens
— AJ (@AST_ute) August 24, 2023