After negotiations for their matchup fell through last month, Tyson Fury asserted that Anthony Joshua never intended to challenge him.

Despite Joshua’s recent loss to Oleksandr Usyk in their rematch, The Gypsy King confronted Joshua in late September.

The fight appeared to be on track when Joshua’s management first declared that they had agreed to Fury’s stipulations, but negotiations between the two ended in failure. Due to Joshua’s admission that he won’t fight again until 2023, Fury decided to take on Derek Chisora for the third time on December 3 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Speaking about the broken off talks for the Joshua fight, Fury charged that his opponent didn’t really want to take on him.

‘I just don’t think he ever wanted the fight because if he did I’d be fighting Joshua right now rather than Derek Chisora, one of the people who he manages,’ Fury told former world champion Carl Frampton in an interview with BT Sport.

‘If you want a fight, you tell your team you want it. And they’re saying now: “oh, it was because of commercial rights, sponsors and stuff”. 

‘Now if one of my sponsors says I can’t fight Derek Chisora, what am I going to say? You’re not my sponsor anymore, do one! How can a sponsor dictate who you fight?

‘The fact of the matter is, it’s called “lack of balls” in the trade. And if he’d had the balls, he would have been fighting the Gypsy King here at Tottenham or he could have even done Cardiff if he didn’t like the rain.’

Fury is expected to fight Usyk if he comes through his trilogy bout with Chisora next month.

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