Trainer SugarHill Steward is not about to hold his breath for an all-British showdown to materialize between two of the biggest heavyweight names in boxing.
Steward, the trainer of WBC titleholder Tyson Fury, simply thinks there may be too many moving parts for a bout involving Fury and Anthony Joshua, a former unified champion, to be possible, at least in a reasonable timeframe.
Fury is set to defend his title against mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte on April 23 at Wembley Stadium in London. While Joshua is currently making preparations to earn back the belts (WBA, WBO, and IBF) he gave up to Oleksandr Usyk last September, even if he were to come up short in the rematch, a fight between Joshua and Fury would theoretically still garner significant demand, given the outsize popularity of both fighters and the fact that they are countrymen; Fury hails from Manchester, Joshua from London.
Not that Steward has much optimism that it happens anytime soon.
“Those two men may have an opportunity to fight when both of those guys are 45 years old,” Steward told BT Sport. “Who knows? Do you stick around and just keep waiting for that? Or do you just live your life in peace, knowing you did what you could do to be successful and that you put every effort forth.
“You can’t worry about everybody else and situations you have no control over. And that situation he doesn’t have control over.”
There are, to be sure, significant promotional differences between the two fighters. Fury is promoted by Frank Warren of Queensberry Promotions and Bob Arum of Top Rank Inc., while Joshua has been under the guidance of Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing throughout his entire career. While Hearn and Arum have done business on occasion, neither have expressed much sympathy for the other. As for Warren and Hearn, the two hardly speak, except through put downs filtered through the media.
On the other hand, the potential moolah at stake, one would think, should incentivize the parties to work together.
For Steward, it is better to live without the mental gymnastics it would require to make that fight happen. Steward brought up Fury’s recent pronouncement that he intended to retire after the Whyte bout as an indication that his charge believes there is little chance for a Joshua fight to arise.
“It’s too many moving components to even think so deep about that,” Steward said. “If it was just him and Anthony Joshua, then now you have a better chance. It’s 50-50. But you have it broken down to so many elements you kind of lose real control of the situation.
“It’s best not to think about it or worry about it and just live your life. I guess that’s what Tyson has chosen to do by saying that he’ll retire after this fight here. Fair play.”
