Tyson Fury has claimed his blockbuster fight with Anthony Joshua now has just a one per cent chance of happening, while revealing that alternative opponents are already being lined up.
Fury and Joshua were only officially confirmed to meet at Cardiff's Principality Stadium on December 11 on Thursday, ending years of speculation over a potential Battle of Britain.
But the fight has been thrown into fresh doubt after a reported dispute over the involvement of UFC boss Dana White, with Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn insisting White cannot be involved under the terms of Joshua's contract.
Fury's pessimistic assessment
Fury has now provided his most pessimistic assessment yet of the chances of the Cardiff blockbuster going ahead, despite also saying he expects the fight to eventually happen.
Speaking on his YouTube channel Furocity, Fury was asked what percentage chance he believes there is of facing Joshua.
"One per cent," he said. "If you've got a guy that wants to fight, yeah, and a guy that doesn't want to fight, then how are you going to make that fight happen?"
"I've had nearly 40 professional fights, yeah, and I've been on top of this game for over a decade, right? How did I manage to fight all these people before you, all these champions, yeah, for all these titles that there is in boxing, but, yeah, every time it comes to fighting this nugget, f***ing bodybuilder, CrossFit champion, it never happens. Has anyone ever asked themselves why?"
Fury, though, then struck a more positive note and insisted he remains determined to make the fight happen.
"I'll even tie concrete blocks to my boots to make this fight happen," he said. "There's nothing that I wouldn't do to make this fight happen. I do think it'll happen. Because from what I'm hearing, they've been paid already. There's nothing that I haven't agreed to, nothing."
Benavidez as replacement
However, Fury also revealed that he has been told replacement opponents are already being considered should the Joshua fight collapse. He specifically welcomed the prospect of facing David Benavidez, who has emerged as one of the names being discussed as a possible alternative.
"I already heard last night that they were trying for replacements," Fury said. "All the big names like David Benavidez... what a fight that would be! That would be unbelievable."
Fury claimed Benavidez would represent a considerably tougher challenge than Joshua but said he would accept the fight if it came to that.
"The only thing is, with David Benavidez, he's about four to five times harder fight than Joshua," he said. "I'll take it, because that's what I do. There's not a man on this earth that I won't fight, anybody, not a single person."
Fury then made a prediction about what he believes Benavidez could do against Joshua.
"Never, ever, ever think that Joshua's a tougher fight than David Benavidez," he added. "Benavidez stops Joshua in about three rounds. But that's a good fight. He's fresh, he's young, he's ambitious, but he ain't fought the GK."
Dispute over Dana White
The comments come after Fury claimed on Friday that Joshua and Hearn were attempting to pull out of the fight, despite the contest having only just been announced.
The row centres on White, who was officially named alongside Saudi Arabian powerbroker Turki Alalshikh as a promoter of the Cardiff event. Hearn has publicly disputed White's involvement, while White has insisted he remains part of the fight.
Speaking after Johnny Fisher's victory at the Copper Box on Saturday, White said: "I'm involved in the fight. If Eddie Hearn really cared about this fight, first of all it would have happened a long time ago, number one. Number two, he could finance the thing himself. The guy who's supposed to be helping the fight has been hurting the fight the entire time. We'll all know more in the next three or four days."
Fury also claimed he originally agreed to fight Joshua at Croke Park in Dublin before the venue changed.
"In the beginning, I signed the contract to do the fight in Ireland, in Croke Park, because that's where I wanted to do the fight," Fury said. "So if I'd have stuck to my contract, this fight wouldn't have happened, would it?"
The latest developments leave the proposed Cardiff blockbuster facing an uncertain few days. Fury and Joshua are due to attend a pre-fight press conference in London on Wednesday, although reports have suggested that could now be scrapped amid the dispute.
