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Tyson Fury & Anthony Joshua finally sign off on two-fight deal

Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua have signed off on a two-fight deal to unify the world heavyweight ...



Tyson Fury & Anthony Joshua fi...
Other Sports

Tyson Fury & Anthony Joshua finally sign off on two-fight deal

Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua have signed off on a two-fight deal to unify the world heavyweight boxing titles. 

The English fighters agreed to the deal in principle in June of 2020, but have finally put pen-to-paper on the contracts.

It's expected the first fight will take place in June, possibly in Saudi Arabia.

Fury claimed the WBC title in his only 2020 outing, beating Deontay Wilder by TKO in Las Vegas in February last.

A fortnight before Christmas, Joshua retained his WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO titles by knocking out Kubrat Pulev at Wembley Stadium.

The fights had been cast in controversy immediately after their agreement, with Fury thanking Daniel Kinahan for his role in brokering the deal.

Kinahan had helped establish Fury's management company - MTK Global - but claimed to have distanced himself from the organisation.

Fury cast doubt on the fights last week, telling ESPN+, "I’m not training anymore.

"I’m not training no more. I’ve never stopped training since December 2017, and even after these world title fights, I trained the next day.

"I go running 10 miles, doing things ... I’m in the gym sparring and messing around."

However, Matchroom supremo Eddie Hearn said on Monday, "We'd like to get a site deal confirmed in the next month.

"The hard part is always getting everybody to put pen to paper.

"But this was a major effort from all parties to get this over the line. You had rival promoters, rival networks and rival fighters."

Hearn added, "I actually feel we've done the hard part.

"Speaking for myself, Anthony and his team at 258 management, I know how hard we've worked hard these last couple of months and I just feel that this fight is so big it's not a difficult sell.

"We've already had approaches from eight or nine sites. The offers have come from multiple countries in the Middle East, from Asia, eastern Europe and America."

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Anthony Joshua Boxing Eddie Hearn Matchroom Boxing Top Rank Tyson Fury