“The fighters always want to fight, just fight, but the complications come from the business.” Derek Chisora defends Anthony Joshua after Tyson Fury rules out ever boxing AJ; With Fury-Joshua negotiations having broken down, Chisora has stepped in to box the WBC champion himself
The impact of Tyson Fury failing to secure a clash with Anthony Joshua continues to reverberate through the sport.
While Derek Chisora is now fighting Fury in December, he believes the WBC heavyweight champion is focusing too much on his other British rival.
After announcing his showdown with Chisora at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium on Thursday, Fury ruled out ever boxing Joshua and even brandished the £10,000 he won in cash from promoter Frank Warren for betting that AJ would not sign a contract for their mooted contest.
“AJ is living in Tyson’s head rent-free,” Chisora said. “Tyson wakes up every day thinking about AJ and cannot do an interview without mentioning AJ.
Frank Warren has defended Derek Chisora as an opponent for Tyson Fury and says all the better ranked fighters were not available
“AJ is off living his life, doing his own thing. I don’t know why Tyson keeps talking about AJ.”
Expectations had been raised that a long-awaited collision between Fury and Joshua could have been made this December. When those talks broke down, Chisora stepped in to challenge the WBC champion instead.
But Chisora believes it’s unfair to blame Joshua for those negotiations with Fury stalling.
“AJ could not take the fight because there were so many complications with sponsors and promoters,” Chisora explained.
“The fighters always want to fight, just fight, but the complications come from the business people around them who get in the way.”
Tyson Fury says if Derek Chisora connects with a ‘big swing’ he could be in real trouble
Chisora has fought Fury twice before but this will be his first world title fight since boxing Vitali Klitschko in 2012.
He was convinced that when he beat Kubrat Pulev in July, he had put himself back in the frame for a major bout.
“I knew the fight was happening straight after I beat Pulev,” Chisora declared.
However, putting together this event with Fury was far from straightforward, he insisted.
“The managers and promoters get in the way, they make it difficult,” Chisora said.
“Even this fight and contract was a headache stressing me out.
“People always think making a big fight is easy but it’s always such a headache.”
It highlights a major issue in boxing, particularly prevalent in the men’s sport. Too often fans and fighters are talking about the best fights, without getting to actually see them.
With Fury looking back on a bout that never was, and looking ahead to a possible undisputed clash with Oleksandr Usyk next year, Chisora at least will hope that he will be able to take advantage of any potential distraction.
