IT WOULD BE 'A TRAVESTY' IF ME & ANTHONY JOSUA FIGHT DIDN'T HAPPEN, SAYS TYSON FURY

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WBC heavyweight title holder Tyson Fury, has said he needs to fight Anthony Joshua before he retires from boxing, adding that it would be “a travesty” if the bout was not to take place.

Fury, 34, has frequently announced his retirement, or threatened to, but speaking on The High Performance podcast, the Gypsy King believes he has unfinished business with Joshua before he can hang up the gloves.

“I don’t think I can retire today,” Fury said. “Because I need that Joshua fight. We have been trying to make that fight for years.

“It’s the fight that people want to see. It’s the fight that I want to see as a boxing fan.”

While Fury is presently preparing to defend his WBC heavyweight title against Derek Chisora on December 3 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the British boxer also planned to finalise an undisputed world heavyweight title fight with WBA, IBF and WBO champ Oleksandr Usyk early in 2023.

Those plans have seemingly been thrown into disarray after Filip Hrgovic’s team announced he will challenge the Ukrainian next. Usyk defeated Joshua in the pair’s rematch in Saudi Arabia in August.

“For the last four or five years, there has been this three-headed monster: me, Wilder, Joshua,” Fury added.

“Joshua and Wilder have been slain, and I’m the last one standing. All of a sudden, you’ve got some new people coming up now – Joe Joyce, Daniel Dubois, Usyk’s gate-crashed the party.

“Now there’s a load of new blood that wasn’t there five years ago and it’s like, ‘can you beat this person?’.

“But I think it would be an absolute dying travesty if me and Joshua didn’t fight in this era.”