Tyson Fury has put the chance of fighting Anthony Joshua at one percent and says he would take David Benavidez as a replacement, even though he considers Benavidez four to five times harder than Joshua.
World Boxing News reported Fury’s one percent estimate. Speaking to FuriociTV, Fury said he had heard replacements were being explored, including “all the big names like David Benavidez.”
There’s not a man on this earth that I won’t fight,” Fury said. He was clear about the difficulty, though: Benavidez is “about four to five times harder to fight than Joshua,” and “Benavidez stops Joshua in about three rounds.
The Joshua fight was announced for December 11 at Principality Stadium in Cardiff as a Netflix and Ring event, but The Ring’s Mike Coppinger reported issues behind the scenes.
Eddie Hearn has pointed to a contract clause he says keeps Dana White from promoting the show. Fury blamed Hearn and Joshua in an earlier video, and Coppinger has reported that Benavidez is being explored as a possible replacement opponent.
Benavidez, the unified cruiserweight champion, stopped Gilberto Ramirez in the sixth round in May to win the WBO and WBA titles. He has never fought at heavyweight, and he has been linked to a December unification fight with WBC champion Michal Cieslak. He has also opened the door to a heavyweight fight with Oleksandr Usyk.
