TYSON FURY has seemingly accepted he may not fight Anthony Joshua this summer – but he’s warned his fellow Brit he’ll ‘smash him to bits.’
The pair’s August showdown in Saudi is in major doubt after a judge ruled that former WBC champ Deontay Wilder is contractually entitled to a trilogy fight with The Gypsy King.
A third bout between the pair has been ordered to take place before September 15, throwing a huge spanner into the works of an undisputed title fight with Joshua.
And judging by his recent Twitter post, Fury appears to resigned to the fact he might not get his hands on AJ this summer.
Alongside a video of himself shadow-boxing, he tweeted: “This is how I’m feeling right now, I’m on the inside fighting smashing stuff up, & my next opponent is getting smashed to bits!”
Fury, 32, has repeatedly vowed to ‘smash’ unified champ Joshua for the last few months.
And his failure to mention the Olympian in his latest social media post didn’t go unnoticed.
One boxing fan tweeted: “Gone from Joshua getting smashed to bits to next opponent getting smashed to bits.”
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Another said: “Scared of AJ.”
And another said: “Guessing from your comment ‘my next opponent” means you’re not confident that the Joshua fight is going ahead?’
Wilder, 35, is reportedly willing allow to allow Fury to face Joshua – but only if he’s paid £17million ($20m).
That demand has stunned Fury, who wrote on Instagram: “What a joke @bronzebomber has become asked for 20 million to move over #joker.
“Looks like I have to crack his skull again!”
Team Fury have provisionally reserved the 65,000 capacity Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas for July 24 should they be unable to convince Wilder to step aside.
But Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, is hopeful the biggest fight in the history of British boxing will still go ahead as planned.
The Matchroom chief said: “I have been focusing on Plan A. The only fight we had our mind on was Tyson Fury.
“We hope that that fight can still take place on August 14th.
“The game changed last night where we have to have a plan B in place, and probably a plan C as well.
“We have a couple of different options; of course, the one that springs to mind immediately is the WBO mandatory of Oleksandr Usyk.
“They have been quite patient and I think really, we are in a situation where if Team Fury don’t get themselves together, get their act together, by the end of this week, we will have no option but to look for an alternative fight.”
