Joshua agrees to fight Fury Dec

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Anthony Joshua has accepted a challenge from WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury after the latter called him out on social media on Monday to challenge the Briton-Nigerian to a Battle of Britain in December.< /p>

Joshua responded to Fury's antics with his Twitter account: "Yeah calm down. I'm not doing the chat just to get some clout, so if you really care, shout out

@258mgt (Joshua's direction). I'll be ready in December."

That same evening Eddie Hearn, Joshua's promoter, had preliminary talks with Fury's team about the blockbuster showdown with Joshua.

Joshua's public acceptance of the offer prompted a phone call between representatives for Hearn and Fury.

During an appearance on talkSPORT on Tuesday, he said: "I had a conversation last night with George Warren from Queensberry (Promotions).

"I would love to get really excited about this because I think this is the fight I get stopped in the streets for more than any fight that could be made.< /p>

"This is a fight AJ has wanted for a long time.

"Remember we signed for this fight last year before court arbitration forced Deontay Wilder to fight for Tyson Fury.

"It's interesting because last week he retired, then he only came back to fight Usyk, then he made Derek Chisora ​​an offer, then he wanted a half a billion, then he retired again, then he's fighting Usyk in December and now he's fighting Joshua.

“The message is pretty clear from Joshua; we don't want to get into a back and forth, we want the fight.”

Fury and Joshua were supposed to meet in the ring last year after agreeing a stunning two-fight deal in March 2020.

But former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder sabotaged the undisputed fight when he won his arbitration for a trilogy fight with Fury.

Joshua is currently planning to return to the ring after back-to-back losses to Oleksandr Usyk, the most recent of which came in Saudi Arabia last month.

But he'll gladly bet his career on a short-notice domestic brawl with longtime rival Fury.

Hearn said, "This is the fight he's wanted for a long time.

"After the Usyk loss, we planned to come back in December, then come back in March, get active and pick up the pace, then try to fight for the world title heavyweights.

"But I know from talking to Joshua and as you saw with his message that if this fight is there and they are serious which I have my doubts [about].

"But listen, for the sake of trying to make it happen, believe Tyson Fury."

Matchroom Boxing chief Hearn wants Fury to send in a draft deal for the proposed fight if he's really serious about fighting the Anglo-Nigerian.

He said, "I said to George Warren last night, 'Give us the details, send us the offer. I'll take it to Joshua, he's ready to go.

We didn't expect this opportunity, but it's a great opportunity to fight for the world heavyweight title in boxing's greatest fight.

"And we will definitely look into it."

Hearn has his doubts about Fury's offer, saying, "The cynic in me, in boxing, it smacks of, Oh, we couldn't agree on the deal with Joshua, so I'm fighting this guy you never heard of instead.'

""No one else was available, I tried to get Joshua to fight", etc., etc. But like I said, let's take the cynical out and see what we let's recover from Camp Fury because we're ready to discuss it and we're ready to watch this fight for sure.”