The Anthony Joshua – Tyson Fury saga is taking different turns with each passing day, making it more uncertain. The dispute over the venue has virtually halted the much-anticipated showdown from being officially confirmed. While AJ’s promoter Eddie Hearn wants the fight to take place in England, the cohort forming the remaining part of the stakeholders, including Turki Alalshikh, appears keen to stage it in New York’s Madison Square Garden.

After Hearn gave an ultimatum, “It’s England or nothing,” the latest development saw Fury calling out Joshua for hiding behind excuses. What may come as a surprise to some is that Fury’s comments received an endorsement from none other than Iron Mike Tyson, who joined him in teasing Anthony Joshua.

“AJ, sign the contract, big boy!” shouting loudly alongside Mike Tyson, Fury said in a video shared on Instagram.

“He says you are scared,” Mike Tyson added into the camera. “He said you’re scared. Do you hear that? Do you hear that?”

“He’s scared alright, cuz I’m gonna knock his a– spark out 100%,” Fury repeated. “Sign the contract, big boy. You getting chinned!”

While it’s still not clear where the two former champions met, Tyson’s role as a matchmaking figure is fairly well known. One of the most notable instances where he used his status as a boxing elder was to help bring the showdown between Ryan Garcia and Gervonta Davis together back in April 2023.

Of course, he did not handle the formal business or contractual negotiations. But he played a key role in bringing the two stars together after getting them to FaceTime during one of the episodes of his Hotboxin’ With Mike Tyson.

By joining Tyson Fury, Mike Tyson could now be playing the role of a catalyst, enticing AJ to accept the challenge and enter the ring.

The caption on Tyson Fury’s Instagram post, meanwhile, made his intentions clear: “AJ, stop running scared; be the man I know u can be, and step up and fight me, MSG, NYC.”

These comments come after a separate video message Tyson Fury released, where, while calling out Joshua, the Mancunian expressed his frustration by saying, “I’ve been down to fight in every location that’s been mentioned: England, Ireland, Vegas, New York, back to England, back to Ireland, back to New York.”

Describing Anthony Joshua as a “coward,” Fury argued that he agreed to the negotiations with “zero stipulations.”

According to the former WBC heavyweight champion, Joshua now no longer wants to face him. He’s going back to a familiar pattern that saw him stall previous negotiations.

Challenging him to take the fight, Fury mocked Joshua, arguing that his recent setbacks, where he was knocked down by his opponents, should not stop him from stepping into such a major showdown because he will send him to the canvas once again.

Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury: Venue chaos, contract confusion and no clear end in sight

Team Fury’s latest criticism of Joshua comes against the backdrop of Hearn’s comments on Ariel Helwani’s show. Saying that the next 48 hours are critical to the Fury-AJ matchup and will finally decide whether the fight comes together or not, Hearn appeared frustrated over the contractual ambiguity that now seems to have taken over the venue dispute.

While Fury called out AJ to sign the contract yesterday, speaking with iFL TV’s Kugan Cassius, his promoter Frank Warren suggested that there is a new contract in place for the AJ fight. In that context, the whole situation seems to have become more complicated for Hearn and his team.

“To be honest, I’d love just to go, ‘f–k you lot,” Hearn told Helwani. “Do what you promised us. Do what we signed for.’ At the same time, I don’t want to lose the fight because I’m sick and tired of this fight not happening.”

“It’s so frustrating because no one’s acknowledging that we (already) signed a contract for the fight… We signed the contract three months ago. So, what are you talking about? You want us to sign the new contract? The new contract that meant that we get less money, and then the fight takes place in a venue that we didn’t even agree to? Not just a venue, a country that we didn’t agree to?”

That confusion was reflected in Matchroom Boxing CEO Frank Smith’s comments during an interview with iFL TV. Smith stated that Joshua has already signed the contract. Fury may have agreed to or signed something with his side, something about which they don’t know exactly what it is.

Echoing a sentiment shared earlier by Hearn, Smith concluded by saying that the final process is still being negotiated and that they are getting close to a point where a decision has to be made.

For a fight that has been in talks for years, the situation has clearly become frustrating for fans, with the two sides still bickering over a string of issues.

At age 38 and 36, neither Fury nor AJ has time on their side. Neither has the luxury of entering a title race again in a heavyweight landscape increasingly dominated by younger fighters like Moses Itauma, Agit Kabayel, and Daniel Dubois.

In that context, this could be their last chance to make the historic clash happen while also securing a massive payday. Any slip at this stage would not only be a disservice to the fans but also to the two heavyweights themselves.