John Fury does not want his son fighting Anthony Joshua. Five weeks before the two meet in Cardiff, the father and longtime cornerman of Tyson Fury has told the BBC that the loser will carry the defeat for the rest of his career.
“I hope it never happens. They’ll get that much stick, the loser, they won’t be able to cope with it,” he says in the BBC documentary Rivals: Fury v Joshua, which lands on BBC iPlayer on Tuesday, November 10.
In the same interview, John Fury added that both fighters still hit hard enough to seriously hurt one another and that he does not want to see either man reduced to a punchline after years at the top of the division.
WBA title vacated by Usyk on the line
The bout is confirmed for Friday, December 11 at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, with ring walks pushed into the early hours of Saturday morning local time to fit US television windows. The WBA “super” heavyweight title, vacated by Oleksandr Usyk, is on the line.
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Saudi Arabian promoter Turki Alalshikh brokered the matchup after years of stalled negotiations between the two camps. Netflix will carry the fight globally. The announcement went around longtime promoters Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn, who both appear in the BBC documentary alongside former boxer Natasha Jonas and analyst Steve Bunce.
John Fury will not attend
The corner regular is staying home. Speaking to Playbook Boxing, John Fury said he would not travel to Cardiff and would wait to be told the result, citing the risk of the night going badly and a general distaste for those around the event. He has been a fixture of Tyson Fury’s biggest fight nights; this one he intends to sit out.
The warning carries weight because of who delivered it. John Fury trades in blunt pre-fight talk, and he usually trades it in his son’s favor. Here he is flagging damage he says would land on either side of the ropes, in a fight neither man, in his view, is walking into at his peak.
BBC Sport launches Rivals: Fury v Joshua on Tuesday, November 10, with a companion podcast titled 5 Live Boxing: Fury v Joshua on BBC Sounds the same day, presented by Anna Woolhouse and Steve Bunce. Fury and Joshua step into the ring in Cardiff on Friday, December 11.
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