Boxing: Why Joshua vs Fury Will Not Happen This Year – Frank Warren

Frank Warren has told talkSPORT that Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury will not happen this year, despite Eddie Hearn hoping otherwise.
“No. How many times do we have to tell everybody, the position is really simplistic,” Warren told Alan Brazil and Dean Saunders during a Friday morning appearance on talkSPORT Breakfast.

“Basically, the fight on May 18 in Riyadh, the loser of that fight will have the right to call for a rematch and they will do it because there is such huge amounts of money involved in it.
“After that, I’m sure we will get it on providing Fury wins both of the fights and providing AJ keeps winning.”

Hearn claimed in a recent interview that Joshua’s next fight will be for a version of the heavyweight world title, either a shot at the soon-to-be-vacated IBF crown or a fight against the winner of Fury vs Usyk.
The IBF are next up in the heavyweight sanctioning body rotation system and are due to order their mandatory challenger, Filip Hrgovic, to face the winner of the undisputed fight after May.

However, the heavyweight titans have a rematch clause signed into their contracts, meaning they are unlikely to be able to accept the IBF’s call.

The IBF have already confirmed that they will strip the winner of the four-belt shootout should they proceed with a second bout, and instead order Hrgovic to fight the next-highest-ranked boxer for the vacant title.

Currently, that is Joshua, who is placed at No.3 in the IBF rankings with the No.2 spot still unoccupied.