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Bob Arum doesn’t believe Anthony Joshua’s team are eager to make fight against Tyson Fury

The Top Rank promoter believes Anthony Joshua could use some get-well fights before getting it on with Tyson Fury.

Bob Arum says Anthony Joshua’s team might be talking a good game in public but has his doubts about their sincerity.
Bob Arum says Anthony Joshua’s team might be talking a good game in public but has his doubts about their sincerity.
Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

With recent talk about a proposed fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua getting a lot of talk around the boxing world, Fury’s promoter Bob Arum tells Sky Sports he sort of believes Team Joshua are feigning interest in potentially making the fight.

“I really don’t think Joshua’s people are anxious to make the fight now,” Arum said. “Because he’s come through a devastating loss and I think, conventionally, Joshua is going to want a couple of soft touches to get back in the swing of things.”

Arum would continue by emphasizing that Fury wants to get in another fight before the year is out and with Oleksandr Usyk ruling out a return before next year, Anthony Joshua was one of the bigger fights for Fury to make.

And as far as Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn is concerned, Arum says he thinks Hearn is just talking a good game to the public but thinks it makes no sense for them to be willing to throw Joshua in with Fury after coming off those two losses to Usyk.

That being said, Hearn himself says that he’s been engaged in ongoing discussions with Queensbury (Fury’s other co-promotional company) and says they’re certainly open to making the fight and it’s more just a negotiation about the fight date as Fury prefers to fight in November while Joshua would rather go in December.

Whether or not those differences become a permanent impasse remains to be seen, but so long as both sides are still in discussion there’s hope that a middle ground can be found.

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