Frank Warren, the promoter of Tyson Fury, became the latest fight figure to provide an opinion on the situation regarding Fury’s potential superfight with Anthony Joshua. Both fighters have signed an agreement committing to a two-fight series but issues like venue and date continue to be a stumbling block.
A number of possible locations, including Saudi Arabia, China, Las Vegas, and London, have been continually linked to be staging the fight, but a final decision has not yet been made. With a summer showdown previously discussed by those involved, it appears that time is running out to get a July date finalised.
“I’m seeing all these various stories, ‘It’s gonna be Wembley on July 24,’ and so forth,” said Warren to Talksport. “But I don’t see how any of that can happen in July or even early August from my perspective. Robert McCracken is AJ’s trainer, he’s also our Olympic team’s head coach, so he’s going to be in Japan – I think the Olympics start on July 23, and I don’t know what the quarantine period is.
“He can’t be in two places at once. That’s if Robert McCracken’s still training AJ, maybe he’s not training the Olympic squad, I’m not sure. That’s one issue. I don’t believe this fight will go on until – if it’s late August we’ll be very lucky, maybe September.”
With a number of sites preparing offers for what is set to be one of the biggest sporting events of the year, Warren did make a small suggestion that Saudi Arabia is favourite to host the event when asked the question.
“You can say that, I’ll wait until I see the offer. In the meantime, we’ve been having discussions at government level with a view to try and get this fight on in the UK if nothing else comes in from elsewhere.
“I’m hoping something will come in from elsewhere. We’ve had really good responses from them [the government], they’ve been very helpful and our discussions continue.”