Tyson Fury suggested an announcement for his blockbuster showdown with Anthony Joshua is imminent as Eddie Hearn set a deadline of this week for negotiations to be finalised.
Fury posted on Instagram an image of himself alongside Joshua above the words ‘New York City’, with the Manhattan skyline providing the backdrop for the British rivals as they face off.
The mocked-up promotional poster is in reference to the fight’s expected venue of Madison Square Garden, with November 20 the date under discussion.
open image in galleryFury said on social media: “What a place NYC, & what a venue MSG, & what a fight Fury vs AJ, the land of opportunity. what a weekend away for the lads on the p**s in nyc. Iconic! not long. ow guys.”
Initially Fury and Joshua were to clash at Wembley, but Sela, the Saudi state-owned promotional company that is financing the showdown, has switched locations to New York with a view to capturing a bigger American audience on Netflix.
To take the richest fight in British boxing history across the Atlantic, Hearn has demanded Joshua’s purse is increased to reflect the additional tax paid for boxing in the United States.
Matchroom promoter Hearn said: “There’s nothing agreed right now. We will need to make a decision this week. They have our terms, it’s up to them.
“We’re speaking multiple times a day, but we’re running out of time. If you want to do the fight on November 20…and they’re talking of a press conference next week…it’s Tuesday, do you know what I mean?
“We’re all moving forward amicably. We don’t want to do the fight in the US, but we also understand it has to work for everybody.
open image in gallery“We’re basically being told we only want to do the fight in the US, which we don’t agree with, we don’t understand. We’ve been banging our head against the wall on that for the last two months.
“We’ve set out our position mainly in concern to the contract situation that will deplete AJ’s net purse by going to America, which can be rectified, and I think they’re happy to do that.
“I think it will get over the line, but our dream and our hope is they just turn around and go, ‘This is too messy, we’ll just do it in Wembley’. But they’re adamant, adamant, that they want the fight in America.”