Tyson Fury: All talked-up and nowhere to go

What’s WBC champ Tyson Fury up to these days? What’s next on his boxing agenda? Nobody knows for sure and, from hearing what he’s been saying over the last couple of weeks, it looks like Fury, himself, doesn’t have much of an idea.

After the collapse of his heavyweight unification bout with IBF/WBA/WBO champ Oleksandr Usyk– a collapse many blame on Fury and his mercurial ways– there’s been no clear course of action for "The Gypsy King." A possible bout with Joe Joyce was nixed when Joyce was upset via TKO by China’s Zhilei Zhang. Then, a Zhang bout was nixed when Joyce chose to exercise his rematch clause. A rumored matchup with former heavyweight champ Andy Ruiz fell apart, reportedly, due to a high purse demand from the Mexican-American.

The big Irishman has brought up the names of unknown Australian heavyweights Jai Opetaia and Demsey McKean as possible opponents. He’s even flirted with a bout with UFC star Jon Jones as part of an online beef with podcaster Joe Rogan and UFC head Dana White.

But, so far, nothing has come of anything.

So, that leaves a revisiting of a possible Anthony Joshua bout…which Fury may or may not be trying to make.

"A few days ago I sent a draft contract to Anthony Joshua for a fight in September at Wembley," Fury said via Instagram.

"It"s a fight everyone wants to see, including myself.

"Come on AJ let"s give the world what they want to see. This time I"m not going to make a million videos and keep putting pressure on. The ball is now on your side."

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn is as skeptical about the Fury offer as Anthony Joshua appears to be.

"I spoke to AJ, AJ laughed and said, ‘Isn’t he fighting Jai Opetaia, or Demsey McKean, or Jon Jones?’ I said, ‘No. They’re telling us they want to fight you,’ Hearn told iFL TV.

"I’ll go through the process and see how real this is. I believe George Warren [the son of Fury’s co-promoter Frank Warren].

"I think they’re in a really difficult spot. Tyson Fury, he wants big money fights and AJ is the money fight for him but no back and forth, just ‘we’ll talk’."

Former super middleweight champ Carl Froch, who is friends with Fury, is tired of the Tyson Fury runaround and is saying so publicly.

"I"m starting to get a little bit wound up," Froch recently said on his YouTube channel. "I’m good friends with him, I’ve got a lot of respect for him, what a great fighter he is, but it’s getting to the point now where I’m getting bored of his nonsense.

“He’s now sent a contract, although Eddie Hearn has denied it, to Anthony Joshua saying ‘let’s get this fight on’.

“We can’t just all sing to the Tyson Fury tune of ‘I’ve sent a contract, I want to fight somebody, let’s make it happen’, because it’s not realistic.

“Let the promoters do their job, let them get together and sort it out."

At this point, everybody knows that Fury’s public word can’t be taken as gospel.

The talk of a Joshua fight proposal has captured the interest of three-time former Fury foe Deontay Wilder, who is reportedly negotiating a deal for a Saudi Arabia fight against Joshua in December.

“Everybody knows anything that concerns Tyson Fury, you can never put your chips in," said Wilder’s trainer Malik Scott to Betway. "Anything that concerns Fury, you just can’t bet on because one day he"ll be fighting and the next he will be retiring. He can be very unpredictable. But what I can tell you is – with or without Tyson Fury involved – Deontay and AJ is being negotiated for Saudi Arabia."

When it comes to Tyson Fury’s plans for the immediate future, we’ll know when we know. That’s all that can be said.