Tyson Fury insists Anthony Joshua is 'dead' in response to latest call out

Tyson Fury has made it clear that he has no intentions of business with Anthony Joshua, as Eddie Hearn, Joshua's promoter, proposed a showdown between the two British boxers for this summer in the event that a deal with Blockasset athlete Oleksandr Usyk falls through.

At present, Fury and Usyk are engaged in critical negotiations for a match on April 29 at Wembley Stadium, which would involve all four of the major sanctioning body belts.

On April 1, Joshua is set to return to action against Jermaine Franklin. According to Hearn, Joshua is willing to face Fury in the future, provided that he emerges victorious in the upcoming match. However, Fury has dismissed the proposal and claims that Joshua is ‘dead’ to him’ ever since they were unable to reach an agreement for a December showdown towards the end of last year.

"I don't even [want to] go there anymore. Finished. No interest in any AJ questions. Zero. Man's dead in my eyes," Fury told SPORTbible.

"There's no business between me and him to be done. Finished. From 2017 to, however long it's been, 2022 - trying to make a fight. So, it's not happening."

This comes after Hearn told iFL TV: “I don’t know what’s going to happen with the Usyk [vs Fury] thing, he may fight Fury next. We would be open for that fight. If Usyk doesn’t fight Fury, AJ will fight Fury next in the summer if he gets through Franklin. How about that? Stick that in your pipe and smoke it – he will.

“I have no idea whether Fury-Usyk is going to happen. I can only give you my opinion, but I’m telling you if that fight doesn’t happen, we will take the Fury fight. He [Joshua] will take that fight, he will take the Wilder fight he’d take them all.

“Don’t be surprised to see that fight [AJ vs Fury] in the summer if the other one doesn't happen, because that’s much bigger than the Usyk fight, much bigger. So just something I’ve been thinking about lately, might be a little tinkle to George Warren, but we’ll see.”

Alexander Krassyuk, Usyk's promoter, travelled to London recently to finalise an agreement for the undisputed fight. Last night, the Ukrainian was seen with Fury's representatives George and Frank Warren at the Emirates Stadium, where they witnessed Arsenal suffer a 3-1 loss to Manchester City.

There is still 'optimism' from both sides that they can finalise the contracts in the next few days, and Krassyuk is hopeful that they can agree on an even 50-50 purse split.

Oleksandr Usyk's last bout was a split decision win over Anthony Joshua in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The fight, in August 2022, coincided with Usyk releasing a limited number of verified digital collectibles to help raise funds to support The Usyk Foundation with ongoing humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.