Anthony Joshua exclusive: ‘Stop talking and get fit, Tyson Fury, then we’ll sort it out in the ring’

BIG FIGHT DIARY
Big talk: Tyson Fury has labelled Anthony Joshua a “poor man’s Frank Bruno”, which the IBF champion takes as a compliment
Mark Robinson/Getty Images
Anthony Joshua26 April 2017

Tyson Fury has called me “a poor man’s Frank Bruno”, while he terms himself “the GOAT” — the greatest of all time. We’ve also been embroiled in a bit of back and forth on Twitter: sometimes you can poke and poke a person, then catch them on the day and, bam, you have to react.

He addresses me a lot on Twitter and, at the time of me biting, I was in the frame of mind where I thought, “Klitschko and I don’t have many verbals, so let me respond to Fury”.

As for the Bruno reference, well, frankly, that’s to my credit. Frank was a great servant to boxing, represented himself well and gave great entertainment. So, if I am a poor man’s Frank, I’m halfway there.

But the guy’s disrespectful. If I was “the GOAT”, why would I spend my time worrying about guys like me, supposedly behind him in the pecking order?

Do I want him to come back? Yes, of course I do. I’m not going anywhere. I’m here to fight but I don’t know what his plans are. I don’t know why it is exactly, but what’s clear at this stage is that I’ve obviously got in his head because he talks about me such a lot.

Instead of him always talking so much, I want him to get fit and come back, because I’m a heavyweight that he wants to fight. Realistically, the fight between me and Fury should already have happened by now. If you go back 17 months, I was saying that the fight against Klitschko wasn’t right yet, so the realistic fight for me at that stage was Fury.

But obviously it didn’t happen, so I’ve moved on. It’s still a fight that can happen, I’ve got no problem taking it if he comes back and wants it.

He has beaten Wladimir, he’s not making it up. That’s a fact you can never take away from him and you’ve got to give him great credit for that.

In his mind that’s relevant, because I haven’t beaten him yet. If that’s what he wants to hold on to, that’s fine. He can take that to his grave with him, but that’s got no relevance in my afterlife.

In Pictures | Anthony Joshua's professional fights

1/26

Clearly, he’s proud of his past achievement — and he should be because that opened up the division and we wouldn’t be here without it. And Saturday night’s fight is something that’s opened up for me.

If I was managing a fighter in my position, I might have wanted a couple more learning fights [before this one]. But that’s as a manager, who’s there to get his fighter to the top and do so carefully and protectively. As for the fighter in me, well, he is screaming for this opportunity, “Let’s go!”.

And after this, who knows? We’re all in the same era, so a fight with Tyson is inevitable… if he comes back.

So let’s have less talking and more training.

I don’t duck anyone, I’m just in the gym grafting, so that when I get out there — whether it’s York Hall in my early fights, The O2 or Wembley Stadium — I’m always getting better and always ready to perform.

We need big fights like this, from Klitschko to Fury.

Everyone needs a dance partner and when you look at what is coming up on Saturday, who wouldn’t want to be a part of it? Talk is cheap, though, Tyson. You have to back it up.

Joshua vs Klitschko is exclusively live this Saturday on Sky Sports Box Office. To book visit skysports.com/joshua

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in