Ricky Hatton believes Tyson Fury is interested in the Anthony Joshua fight despite his denial. And the boxing legend has urged his friend to put the undisputed fight with Oleksandr Usyk on hold to face AJ instead.
Usyk and Fury are expected to face each other next after coming face to face following Fury’s ten-round demolition of Derek Chisora last weekend. According to Usyk’s promoter Alexander Krassyuk, both parties are targeting a date between February 18 and March 4 in the Middle East.
This timeline is dependent on Fury’s recovery from his recurring left elbow injury which requires surgery. Fury says that it will take approximately six to eight weeks to heal from the medical procedure.
But Hatton would rather Fury faces Joshua next “for the sake of the sport”.
“It doesn’t look good on the sport when [Terence] Crawford vs [Errol] Spence isn’t happening when we all know it should happen. AJ and Tyson not happening – it doesn’t look good. Those are the proper fights but then we’ve got the YouTube crew nicking all the limelight. For the sake of our sport, we need these fights to happen. Fingers crossed we get it over the line, absolutely.”
Hatton’s comments come after Fury denied all interest in attempting to make the all-British showdown after their December 3 date failed to get over the line.
“Nada. Zero. I want to fight with real men and real challengers who want to fight. Usyk wants to fight. He got in my face and wants to fight,” he said at his post-fight press conference for the Chisora trilogy.
“We live in the same country, and have you ever seen Anthony Joshua do that to me? And even Joe Joyce got involved and thought he’d be a part of the party, so big up big Joe.”