Notebook: Fury vs. Joshua next? No deal yet but AJ accepts champ's 40 percent offer

Nontshinga signs with Matchroom Boxing following epic title win; JC Martinez return in works; Quick hits; Show and tell

Sep 08, 2022

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Heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, who apparently is no longer retired and wants to fight again in November or December, is pursuing a bout with former two-time unified titleholder and British countryman Anthony Joshua for what would still be a mega fight even with Joshua coming off back-to-back decision losses to Oleksandr Usyk.

Usyk outpointed Joshua in their Aug. 20 rematch to retain his three belts in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and all signs pointed to the making of a Fury-Usyk fight for the undisputed championship.

However, Usyk has ruled out fighting for the remainder of the year, so Fury instead has turned his attention to Joshua — at least this week after having changed his mind repeatedly about his career plans in recent months. For now, though, he has eyes for Joshua.

In a video posted to Instagram, Fury, wearing three of the various belts he has won, said he would be fighting in the next few months and added, “Before I announce an opponent I need to do this just in case: Anthony Joshua, I know you just lost a fight to Usyk and I’d like to give you an opportunity to fight me for the WBC heavyweight championship of the world and the lineal championship in the next few months.

“You’re coming off a 12-round fight, so you’re match fit, you’re ready and I’m giving you a few months’ notice. If you’re interested I’ll send you the date over and we can rumble. A battle of Britain for the WBC heavyweight championship of the world. Let me know if you’re interested. If not I will select another opponent. Thank you very much and good night.”

Later, Fury posted a follow up video to clarify his supposed offer.

“I’ve been bombarded with messages on how much am I gonna pay AJ,” Fury said. “Everyone is saying 80-20, 70-30, 75-25. The actual answer is I’ve offered him 60-40 — 40 percent of this amazing fight because I want this fight to happen. He doesn’t have any excuses now not to take it. He can’t say I’ve low-balled him by offering him 20 percent, 30 percent. I’ve offered him 40 percent. Take it or leave it. Let us know.”

Fury added a Tweet reiterating his desire for the fight, which a few weeks ago he said could happen but only if everybody did it for free and it was on free television before his about face this week.

“I’ve offered him 60/40. That’s more than fair. I want this fight to happen,” Fury posted. “He will never get a better offer. Straight WBC shot. The ball is in your court, Anthony Joshua.”

Big fights are far more complicated than how Fury has positioned the “offer,” but Joshua promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing said Joshua will accept 40 percent and that Fury will have a rematch clause if Joshua wins.

“In essence, we accepted the 60-40 offer (Wednesday) morning,” Hearn said in an interview with IFL TV. “Lots of conversations to have. I don’t know if this is a play to let this break down and then fight someone well under par in November/December and say, ‘I tried to make the AJ fight.’ Or I don’t know if this is to try to get the Usyk fight agreed for a lot more money. We’re going through all those processes. It’s difficult because all the media, everybody are, ‘Are you gonna do it? Are you gonna do it?’ All I can tell you at the moment is we accept 60-40.”

Hearn also said in the interview that they would want 60 percent in a rematch if Joshua beats Fury.

“We want that reversed in a rematch, rightfully so, because you're the champion here you want the bigger split, which I think is fair,” Hearn said.

Fury co-promoter Frank Warren claimed Wednesday that he sent the Joshua camp a formal offer for the fight.

Hearn added that they would like for the fight to take place Dec.17 at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales while Fury’s preferred dates are Nov. 26 at Wembley Stadium in London or Dec. 3 at Principality Stadium, which is attractive for that time of the year because it has a retractable roof in the event of poor weather.

Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs), 34, drew a record 94,000 to Wembley Stadium for his sixth-round knockout of mandatory challenger and countryman Dillian Whyte on April 23.

Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs), 32, has headlined at Wembley Stadium twice, an 11th-round knockout of Wladimir Klitschko in the 2017 fight of the year that drew 90,000, which was the allowable capacity at the time, and a seventh-round knockout of Alexander Povetkin in 2018 that drew about 80,000.

Joshua has also twice headlined at Principality Stadium, drawing 76,000 for a 10th-round knockout of Carlos Takam in a 2017 title defense followed by a decision over Joseph Parker in a unification bout in his next fight that drew 78,000 in 2018.

Even if the money is agreed to, complicated broadcaster issues remain as Fury is with BT Sport in the United Kingdom and ESPN in the United States while Joshua is under contract to streaming service DAZN in both countries.

Fury and Joshua had a deal in place to fight for the undisputed title on Aug. 14, 2021 in Saudi Arabia for nine-figure purses. However, just after the deal was finally agreed in May 2021 after a long negotiation, former titlist Deontay Wilder won an arbitration case against Fury, forcing him to abide by the terms of the contract from their rematch and forcing him into a third fight, which Fury won by 11th-round knockout in the 2021 fight of the year in Las Vegas.

Once Fury was unavailable, Joshua instead faced mandatory challenger Usyk for the first time and lost a decision and his three belts in September 2021 in London.

Nontshinga signs with Matchroom

Days after his scintillating split decision victory to claim the vacant IBF junior flyweight title, Sivenathi Nontshinga has signed a promotional deal with Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, it was announced on Wednesday.

On Saturday night on DAZN, on the Juan Francisco Estrada-Argi Cortes undercard in Hermosillo, Mexico, Nontshinga scored a second-round knockdown and went on to outslug Mexico’s Hector Flores to win a split decision — 116-111 and 115-112 on two scorecards with then-unbeaten Flores getting the nod 114-113 on the third — to claim the vacant 108-pound belt in a riveting, bloody, non-stop action battle that is a clear contender for fight of the year honors.

Nontshinga (11-0, 9 KOs), 23, of South Africa, was fighting for the first time outside of his home country and is now the only reigning titleholder in boxing from South Africa.

Now he has signed with Matchroom Boxing and relishing his victory.

“I'm enjoying this moment of victory not only for myself but for my country as I am the only legitimate (current) world champion,” Nontshinga said. “I would love to defend my world title in South Africa as a homecoming.”

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Trainer and manager Colin Nathan, who delivered dramatic words of encouragement in the corner late in the fight, was thrilled his fighter has secured a promotional deal.

“I'm over the moon,” Nathan said. “Seven years ago, Sive reached out to me as a 15 year old amateur wanting to join me. I've been involved in Sive's career for the last four years in the guidance and management. I started training him in January this year after his father, who was training him, asked me to take over his career completely.

“My speech after the ninth round has gone viral around the world — ‘We’re behind, you've got nine minutes to turn to your life around’ — I meant it. Those nine minutes changed the trajectory of his life and history was made for South African boxing.”

Hearn was impressed by Nontshinga’s performance in the title fight.

“His performance on Saturday night in hostile territory was outstanding, and there is so much more to come from this talented young man,” Hearn said. “He’s got a great coach and manager in Colin backing him all the way, and with a big piece of the pie at light fly, there’s some huge fights that can be made at 108 pounds and beyond.”

Quick hits

Matchroom Boxing is planning a show on Oct. 22 (DAZN) in Mexico with WBC flyweight titlist Julio Cesar Martinez slated for the main event, sources told Fight Freaks Unite. Martinez (18-2, 14 KOs), 27, of Mexico, will look to rebound from a loss. He moved up to junior bantamweight on short notice and lost a one-sided decision to four-division champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez on March 5 in San Diego as a fill-in for Juan Francisco Estrada, who had come down with Covid-19 and withdrew from a trilogy fight with Gonzalez.

Heavyweight contender Frank Sanchez (20-0, 13 KOs), 30, Miami-based Cuban, will face Carlos Negron (25-3, 20 KOs), 35, of Puerto Rico, on Oct. 15 (Fox PPV) on the Premier Boxing Champions card headlined by the Deontay Wilder-Robert Helenius heavyweight semifinal eliminator at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Sanchez trainer Joe Goossen said during the Andy Ruiz-Luis Ortiz PPV card he was a commentator on Sunday night. Sanchez and Negron were due to meet Jan. 1 but Negron dropped out a week beforehand due to Covid-19 and Sanchez scored a knockdown and won a shutout decision over late replacement Christian Hammer, who was on standby in case he was needed for the card.

Y12 Boxing on Monday won the purse bid for the fight between WBA cruiserweight titlist Arsen Goulamirian (26-0, 18 KOs), 34, of France, and mandatory challenger Aleksei Egorov (11-0, 7 KOs), 31, of Russia, with an offer of $364,000. It beat the only other offer, which was $303,000 from Egorov promoter World of Boxing. Minimum bid was $200,000. Goulamirian gets 75 percent ($273,000) and Egorov gets 25 percent ($91,000). Both promoters had to pay a $10,000 participation fee. Y12 Boxing has 20 days to submit signed contracts from both fighters and their managers. The fight must take place within 90 days, or by Dec. 4, but Y12 Boxing said it is planned for Nov. 19 at a location to be determined in France.

Golden Boy announced it has re-signed unified women’s flyweight champion Marlen Esparza to a multi-year deal. Esparza (13-1, 1 KO), 33, of Houston, who was a 2012 U.S. Olympic bronze medalist and 2014 world amateur champion, has been with Golden Boy since she turned pro in 2017 and was the first female fighter the company signed. She unified the WBC and WBA titles by near-shutout of Naoko Fujioka in April and retained the belts by routing Eva Guzman on Aug. 6. “In the cutthroat business of boxing, loyalty has proven itself to be rewarding,” Esparza said. “I am super excited with my newly structured deal. I’m doing what I love with great compensation and have opportunities to become undisputed as a flyweight and unify in other weight divisions. Thank you, Golden Boy!”

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn announced he has signed southpaw junior middleweight Junaid Bostan (2-0, 2 KOs), 20, who was a top British amateur, and that he will have his first fight of the deal on the Leigh Wood-Mauricio Lara undercard Sept. 24 (DAZN) at Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham, England. “I had several promoters interested in me but we were impressed by the vision that Matchroom had for my future,” Bostan said. “I don’t think I’ve shown my levels yet. All I want to do is work hard and reach my potential, which is becoming a world champion and a massive star in the sport.”

Matchroom Boxing announced that its first show in Australia will take place on Oct. 15 (DAZN) at the South Bank Piazza in Brisbane with the previously announced all-Australian junior welterweight bout between Australians Liam Paro (22-0, 13 KOs), 26, and Brock Jarvis (20-0, 18 KOs), 24, meting in the main event. The undercard includes featherweight Skye Nicolson (4-0, 0 KOs), a 27-year-old southpaw against, against fellow Australian Krystina Jacobs (6-3, 0 KOs), 27; heavyweight Demsey McKean (21-0, 13 KOs), 31, an Australian southpaw, against Patrick Korte (18-1-1, 15 KOs), 38, of Germany; and super middleweight Cesar Mateo Tapia (14-0, 9 KOs), 24, an Australia-based Mexico native, against Abdoulaye Mayweather (7-0, 5 KOs), 29, of Australia.

Show and tell

After post-prison Mike Tyson destroyed Frank Bruno in three rounds of their rematch to reclaim the WBC heavyweight title (Bruno’s final fight), Tyson was matched with WBA titleholder and massive underdog Bruce Seldon in a fight that was postponed for two months after Tyson came down with bronchitis. When Tyson and Seldon finally did meet Tyson knocked out him out in just 1 minute, 49 seconds with punches that did not seem to land even remotely flush. The first was an apparent grazing right on the top of the head that dropped an obviously petrified Seldon. Moments later Tyson caught him with a left hook — again, not an apparent KO shot — and Seldon meekly went down for the second time. He beat the count but did an exaggerated knee buckle, causing referee Richard Steele to wave it off. Seldon’s weak surrender prompted chants at the MGM Grand of “fix!” and complaints nationwide from pay-per-view buyers feeling they had been ripped off by such a suspect effort from Seldon, who has long been dogged by accusations that he took a dive.

It would be the final victory for Tyson in a world title bout. The fight, if you can even call it that, was on Sept. 7, 1996 — 26 years ago on Wednesday. Here is a program from the fight in my collection. Also of note, it was after leaving this fight that rap superstar Tupac Shakur was shot four times and killed in drive-by shooting.