Tyson Fury won’t be withdrawing from his fight with Oleksandr Usyk, his father has claimed.
And that’s a blow for Anthony Joshua, with the Briton’s promoter Eddie Hearn recently admitting he was prepared to step in should the showdown suffer any further setbacks.
Fury and Usyk had been due to meet in the ring earlier this month, only for a gruesome eye injury sustained by the 35-year-old to push the fight back to May instead.
Hearn recently revealed Joshua was ready to step in in the event of another postponement.
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But John, speaking to Free Bets, has claimed that won’t be happening with his son committed to the cause.
Previewing Joshua’s upcoming bout with Francis Ngannou, which will take place on March 8, he said: “He’s got to get past Ngannou first which is a tall order.
“He’s a danger man Ngannou, a big dude, fit, strong, and believes in himself.
“He is able, he’s in your face, doesn’t mind a tear up. Joshua has to get past him before he even thinks about stepping in for anybody else.
“And he’s lost to Usyk twice already and if you’ve lost twice, is there going to be that much interest in a third fight?
“It’s only going to be the same thing: Usyk outpointing him.
“People want to see Tyson vs Usyk and Tyson will not be pulling out. I’ll tell you that now.”
John has been called out by numerous stars over the past few weeks.
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The likes of Carl Froch, Joe Egan and Chase Demoor have all revealed they’d fancy their chances of facing the 59-year-old.
But John isn’t interested and believes the trio are mentioning his name, as well as Tyson’s, with their own agendas in mind.
“A lot of people have been talking, shouting, screaming, but yet there’s no genuine, written offers have come to my address or to my people,” he said.
“So, listen, they can all shout, they can all scream, but actions speak louder than words. Put the money across, it’s a business and let’s get on with it.
“But they don’t seem to want to do that. They seem to just want to shout and scream, calling me out, trying to embarrass me, which they can’t do.
“They could never embarrass a man like me, because I’ve been through too much.
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“To clarify, there have been no written offers, it’s just talk, it’s just nothing, idle chat.”
He added: “It’s nothing new and it’s a good point – that’s what they do.
“They think by mentioning me and people paying them a few hundred quid to run a podcast to run me down, ‘Oh, I want to fight John Fury’, ‘I think this, I think that’, you know what, thinking has caused people a lot of problems in life.
“Thinking and doing are two different things and people don’t seem to understand that today do they?
“But you know what, all those people who think they’re hard men, all of them calling me out hear this…
“The way they’ve gone about it is unprofessional, so therefore it’s caused me to have an instant dislike for these people. Therefore, why would I want to make them any money?
“What they can do, I’ve got a nice barn at the side of me, all of them that think that I’m bothered about fighting, come down.
“Me and him will walk in the barn and the best man will come out, just me and him.
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“We’ll shut the door, we’ll lock ourselves in and the best man will come out of the barn.
“There’s no money, there’s no fame, there’s nothing but a good hiding for them kinds of people.
“That’s if they think they can take me, and I’m telling you they can’t.”
