By Edward Chaykovsky
Promoter Mick Hennessy would love to see his main fighter, IBO/WBO/WBA heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (25-0, 18KOs), eventually step in the ring with Olympic gold medal winner (15-0, 15KOs).
Both fighters have very important obligations coming up.
Joshua will challenge IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin on April 9th at the O2 Arena in London.
Fury will return in the coming months in a contracted rematch with Wladimir Klitschko.
At the moment, Hennessy says the two fighters are levels apart. A win over Martin, in the opinion of Hennessy, will not place him on equal footing with Fury.
Fury briefly held the IBF world title after beating Klitschko last November in Germany. The IBF stripped him of the belt for his inability to make a mandatory defense against Czar Glazkov. Fury was unable to meet his mandatory obligation because the rematch clause with Klitschko prevented him from taking any interim fights. The vacant belt was up for grabs in January and saw Martin stop Glazkov in three rounds due to injury.
Because of the way everything played out, Hennessy does not consider Joshua-Martin to be a legitimate title fight.
"If Anthony Joshua can keep coming through the fights that are in front of him, Tyson - and we - would relish it because it's a huge fight," Hennessy said to Sky Sports. "That is what Tyson would relish, but let's get one thing straight, Tyson is at a different level than Anthony Joshua. Completely.
"He's got a lot to prove in the heavyweight division but in my honest opinion, to me, his fight with Charles Martin is not a world title fight. It's a title that was unfairly taken away from Tyson Fury."
