Anthony Joshua confident fight with Tyson Fury will happen

SPORTS | BOXING

Anthony Joshua says he is a confident a British heavyweight clash with his “dance partner” Tyson Fury will happen because they would do “good business” together.

WBC champion Fury and former champion Joshua were in discussions over a December meeting but talks broke down before Fury instead signed to fight Derek Chisora for a third time.

After agreeing the Chisora bout, Fury said Joshua had missed his chance for a super-fight between the pair, insisting “there will not be a fight between me and him ever”.

Joshua, who has been on the receiving end of many statements from Fury via social media in recent years, does not appear to be convinced by his rival’s words.

“I was supposed to be in the ring December 3,” Joshua told Dazn. “That was the date, but obviously it’s not happening.

“I’ve got a great team. I’m someone who loves doing business, I believe in doing good business and good contracts. But I have a good team and I’ve just got to leave certain things to them.

“All that other stuff, back and forth on social media, it’s quite time consuming. There’s a good and a bad on social media, like anything, so it’s not annoying but you’ve got to play the game as well.

“My dance partner [Fury], the last geezer I was supposed to fight, he’s a good dance partner. He handles social media side of things. I think we’d do good business behind the scenes.

“It will happen.”

Joshua also said he does not take Fury’s – sometimes critical – social media statements personally, insisting their different approaches to promotion are just a result of their cultures.

“It’s nothing personal,” Joshua said. “But from my culture we don’t really with things like that, we’re a bit more low key and just handle our business.

“What I try to do is market myself with these amazing brands that I’ve been working with and have the privilege of being an ambassador of.

“I feel like I do enough speaking through a lot of brands I represent, so when it comes to blabbing my mouth off, I feel like I don’t need to do.

“I feel like I’m out there, but I’m not out there just disrespecting people in my industry, because I need to give credit and respect my industry. That’s how I deal with things, by bringing a kind of class to the industry.”