CAPE TOWN – Right after beating Deontay Wilder to win the WBC Heavyweight title, Tyson Fury’s camp have gone after Anthony Joshua, saying he will be beaten by Kubrat Pulev, meaning the much talk-about unification bout between the two Britons won’t happen.
WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO Heavywight champion is due to fight Bulgaria’s Pulev at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London in June.
Fury’s promoter Bob Arum believes Pulev, who’s only loss was against Wladimir Klitschko in 2014, will be too good for Joshua.
“Fury-Joshua is never going to happen,” Arum was quoted by The Times of London on Saturday.
“Pulev is going to knock Joshua out so why would I talk to Eddie [Hearn, Joshua’s promoter], who I love dearly, about a Joshua-Fury fight? I think Pulev wins and then I negotiate with myself to do a Pulev-Fury fight,” Arum continued.
“Let’s make this crystal clear, I am co-promoter of Tyson and the other co-promoter is Frank Warren.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/Tyson_Fury?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Tyson_Furydid just what he told everybody he was going to do in the fight. All props to him, to SugarHill Steward, Andy Lee and the rest of the camp.
What a promotion, what a night. pic.twitter.com/yD18RRnq57
— Bob Arum (@BobArum)
“I would not talk to Eddie about a fight without Frank’s participation. Frank’s never eben talked with Eddie,” he continued.
Since Fury beat Wilder last month, speculation has been rife about a unification bout against Joshua. But, according to Arum, Andy Ruiz, who beat Joshua in June last year is not as good as Pulev.
“Joshua was the man on top and then he got knocked out by Andy Ruiz who fought almost all his fights with us, so we know how good and not so good he is,” said Arum.
“The fact Joshua got knockout out should have sounded alarm bells. The fight he had to regain his belts, I discount compltely because Andy could not control himself, didn’t train for the fight and came in obese. Even then Josua did not engage with him, he outboxed him.
“Pulev is yards and yards better than Andy Ruiz.”