Tyson Fury says Anthony Joshua fight is off as he makes Oleksandr Usyk statement
Tyson Fury has said the Anthony Joshua fight is off, saying the boxer has ‘s*** his pants’ and has now called out Oleksandr Usyk for a third fight instead.
A bout between the two British boxers has been talked about for years, but things have heated up in recent months and there was a proposed date 20 November thrown around.
Just last week, Fury appeared to suggest that the fight was practically a done deal and even claimed that a venue had been chosen: Madison Square Garden in the US.
Fury shared a mocked-up image of the two men onto his Instagram and teased: “What a place NYC, and what a venue MSG, and what a fight Fury vs AJ, the land of opportunity. what a weekend away for the lads on the p*** in NYC. Iconic! not long. Now guys.”
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However, a few days on, it seems as though there’s been a change of plans and Fury has said the fight’s now off (again… again).
In a clip shared on Instagram, Fury said: “AJ has s*** his pants again, yet again.
“After 11 years he has finally s*** his pants yet again.”
But while the fight with Joshua may not be going ahead, Fury is already working on lining up a new opponent in the form of Oleksandr Usyk.
Fury has fought Usyk twice before, in May and December 2024, with the Ukrainian boxer winning both times.
However, it seems Fury may be hoping the third time is the charm as he’s called him out for a trilogy fight in November.
“This will only lead me to a fight with Oleksandr Usyk,” he continued.
“Oleksandr you’re his [Joshua’s] trainer and his sensei and you know he is a weak minded piece of s**t and that he would never fight the Gypsy King, which you have had the guts to do twice.
“You got the decisions last time, fair play to you. Good luck to you, let’s do it again. Let’s run it back in November.
“The ball is now in your court… do you want to fight me this year, 2026, or are you calling quits?
"Let me know because I am now looking for a new opponent.”
As yet, Joshua hasn’t commented on Fury’s latest announcement, nor has Usyk.
Eddie Hearn says a decision needs to be made
Last week, Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn suggested that a decision on the Fury versus Joshua fight needed to be made soon, but that talks were still ongoing.
“There’s nothing agreed right now,” he said on 1 September.
“We will need to make a decision this week. They have our terms, it’s up to them.
“We’re speaking multiple times a day, but we’re running out of time. If you want to do the fight on November 20… and they’re talking of a press conference next week… it’s Tuesday, do you know what I mean?
“We’re all moving forward amicably. We don’t want to do the fight in the US, but we also understand it has to work for everybody.
“We’re basically being told we only want to do the fight in the US, which we don’t agree with, we don’t understand. We’ve been banging our head against the wall on that for the last two months.
“We’ve set out our position mainly in concern to the contract situation that will deplete AJ’s net purse by going to America, which can be rectified, and I think they’re happy to do that.
“I think it will get over the line, but our dream and our hope is they just turn around and go, ‘This is too messy, we’ll just do it in Wembley’. But they’re adamant, adamant, that they want the fight in America.”
Topics: Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, Boxing, Sport
Claire Reid