Tyson Fury takes shots at Anthony Joshua
WBC world heavyweight champion Tyson “Gypsy King” Fury (30-0-1, 21 KO’s) has never been shy about taking shots at his rivals. He has long been known to call his upcoming and would-be opponents bums, dosers and second tier athletes. And now he is back at it again! This time the Gypsy King has aimed his disparaging comments at WBA/WBO/IBF world heavyweight champion Anthony “AJ” Joshua (24-1, 22 KO’s).
After AJ posted a picture of himself on his Twitter account, Fury was quick to respond with a verbal jab. In the picture’s caption, AJ stated that a great fighter could compete in any era. Whether he was meaning to talk about himself, or was making a general statement, is up in the air. Clearly Fury thought that Joshua was including himself. As a result, he mocked AJ and poked fun at him for his loss to Andy “Destroyer” Ruiz (33-2, 22 KO’s).
THE USYK OBSTACLE
At the moment, Fury versus Joshua is the biggest fight that can be made at heavyweight. Both of the fighters want that match and are pressing for it. The only major hurdle standing in the way is WBA mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk (18-0, 13 KO’s). For the better part of it, Usyk has given the impression that he will demand his fight. On a couple of occasions though, he has hinted that he may step aside and allow the super fight to take place.
Obviously Joshua remains optimistic of that possibility. In fact, AJ recently publicly stated that his team has reached to the Ukrainian. The purpose of the communication was to see if he would allow the super fight to take place. So far, there has been no official word on what the response has been, if anything at all. In the meantime, Fury is being Fury.
IS AJ MENTATILY VULNERABLE?
The Gypsy King is not new to insulting Joshua, he has been doing it for years. In the past, Fury has labeled Joshua a stiff robot, body-builder and paper champion. And so it looks like the hazing will not stop any time soon. Generally, as it is not his personality, AJ rarely returns fire with fire. Many believe that if a fight is scheduled between the two, this brand of trash talk could become a major factor. The logic says that over the course of a full training camp, the Gypsy King could get into the head of Joshua.
This is certainly not outside the realm of possibilities. Disgraced heavyweight Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller (23-0-1, 20 KO’s) was certainly able to rattle AJ’s cage. Similar to Fury, Miller regularly insulted Joshua and even shoved him at a press event. In the case of Big Baby however, AJ did break character. Giving into the trash talk, AJ called Miller ‘a little bitch’ and vowed to knock him out. Unfortunately, before their rift could be settled in the ring, Miller tested positive for PED’s. As a result, the bout was called off and never took place.
Now, there are those that believe Fury can unnerve Joshua with the same brand of verbal abuse. Yet, for the time being we will have to wait and see what Usyk decides to do.
By: Bakari Simpson
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