Tyson Fury feels primed to close out unfinished business in his rematch against Deontay Wilder on Saturday night. And Anthony Joshua has nothing to do with his readiness.
During a sitdown interview with DAZN News' Andreas Hale on Monday, Fury said that the unified world heavyweight champion offered to spar with him to help prepare him for Wilder, only to never follow up and pull a no-show.
"(Joshua) got on Sky Sports and said that he'd come over for sparring. I agreed straightaway," Fury explained. "As soon as I seen it, I sent a video to Instagram saying I'd love to have him in camp, and there was no reply ever. The door was always wide open for him to come over, and he actually made himself look like a bit of an idiot because he said something and he didn't do it. And that was it. He never, ever once got on the phone to me and said 'Can I come over or whatever?'
"He (later) said he regretted saying what he did on video because he almost knew I was going to say yes straightaway," Fury added, "and it was too late by then."
Before the lineal heavyweight champ clarified that a reported sparring session between he and Joshua never happened, just the mere mention of it got quite the rise out of Wilder earlier this month.
"When I heard that, I was doing what I'm doing now — smiling," Wilder told Hale during Super Bowl media week. "It only allows me to continue to keep the claim that I'm the baddest man in the planet. I'm the No. 1 heavyweight in the world.
"Now you got two top heavyweights trying to team up against me," he continued. "I'm supposed to be the one who has the least skills out of everyone, so why have to team up on me? The only thing you gotta do is out-box me, right? I just looked at that as more motivation.
Naturally, the winner of Wilder-Fury 2 will be in line for a shot against Joshua for undisputed heavyweight glory. Although Fury says Andy Ruiz Jr.'s TKO upset of Joshua in June removed any luster from such a scenario, despite "AJ" avenging the loss to get his unified heavyweight crown back in December.
"There was a three-headed monster in the heavyweight division and then someone came and chopped off the third head," Fury said. "And now there's only a two-headed monster because to get knocked out by a little fat guy in Andy Ruiz and then to go in the rematch and do a performance like that, that's not the best heavyweight in the world's victory. That's like someone who's scraping by in a victory."
Fury is referring to Joshua soundly defeating Ruiz behind the jab for a unanimous decision in their own rematch. Fury promises more fireworks Saturday night, while also vowing to turn that two-headed monster into one.