Anthony Joshua: Turki Alalshikh and Netflix want me to lose to Tyson Fury

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Anthony Joshua believes Saudi boxing chief Turki Alalshikh and Netflix want him to lose to Tyson Fury after he pushed hard for the British super-fight to be held in the UK.

Joshua faced off with Fury for the first time on Wednesday in a launch press conference, less than three months out from their long-mooted ‘Battle of Britain’ on 11 December.

The bout will take place at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff and not New York’s Madison Square Garden, which looked nailed on to stage the contest before ‘AJ’ and promoter Eddie Hearn took their stand.

Alalshikh, who is financing the fight, said this change of venue will cost him $70m in revenue but he was happy to make the sacrifice to serve the British fans. Hearn, meanwhile, said Joshua took his stance knowing that there would be an “eight-figure difference” in his pay packet.

Fury was less vocal about wanting to fight on British soil and was far more content to fight stateside, in line with the preference of Alalshikh, who he is regularly very complimentary of. He also has a closer relationship with American streaming giant Netflix, which houses his fly-on-the-wall documentary series ‘At Home With The Furys’.

Joshua therefore feels that the fight’s organisers will be favouring Fury when the rivals lock horns, but says he is ready to “stomp all over” those who want to see him fail.

Asked if he believes Fury is the preferred winner, he replied: “Yes. I believe that, yeah.

“I want to do good but if someone hits you, you stab them. If you f*** with me and you want to see me lose, I will f*** you up even more.

“It’s like that now. I want to do good, I want to bring it to the UK and do good for people and do the right thing.

“But if that means that people will then hate me, and want to see me fail, then I am going to stomp all over you and raise a war that you are not ready for.

“That’s just how it is. That’s just my mentality. Now it’s just ‘f*** everyone’ and that’s just it.”

Fury also have a relationship with UFC prima and Zuffa Boxing co-founder Dana White, who invited him out to UFC Freedom 250 at the White House in July.

White’s involvement in the fight has been a key sticking point, with Hearn reiterating that he is not a promoter while Alalshikh said he would “collaborate” with White for the bout.

The unspecified “issues” that threw the fight into doubt over the weekend were thought to surround White, something which Hearn asserts has been smoothed over. Joshua now says he is “confident … 100 percent” that the fight will happen.

Asked whether Joshua’s own opposition to White’s involvement was based off any real ill-feeling, he said: “I don’t know Dana White as a person, it’s just out of loyalty to Eddie.”

Hearn added that the “short-term battle” surrounding White had been won but hinted that he could end up having a part to play if it benefited both Matchroom and Joshua.

“ It wasn’t like a not allowed in. Under our agreement, he’s not allowed to be involved promotionally in this event. So that short-term battle had to been won. Long term, I’m going to sit down with Dana and Nick Khan and Turki Alalshikh over these coming days, and if there is a way that he can add value to this event, and it will benefit Anthony Joshua or Matchroom or both of us preferably, we can talk.

“But the way that they approached it, for me, was all wrong. The arrogance of saying, even last night, ‘Tell me what I said that was wrong.’ I said, ‘Number one, you said the fight is in America. Number two, you said that you’re the promoter. And number three, you said you did the deal with the venue and you know where the fight is. All of those things, you were wrong.’

“When you say, ‘Oh, I was gonna go to the presser, but I’ve got this Contender Series,” that’s like me pulling out of this presser because I’ve got a NextGen at York Hall. Like, you just wouldn’t miss this for the world.

“What he should have said was is, ‘I understand there’s a contract in place that permits me from being involved. However, I’m gonna step back. I’m gonna allow this… I don’t wanna stop this fight because it’s a very important fight for boxing. And then myself and Matchroom and Turki Alalshikh are gonna get together and try and find a solution.’

“Netflix and Turki Alalshikh would love Dana White involved, so this isn’t an ongoing battle that I’m gonna fight for the next three months on this subject. I won.

“And actually, what Dana White’s got to realise is, I can do this s*** for 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. You all know that. And you know when he goes, ‘Hearn does 300 interviews a day’. Yeah, guess what? I’m never gonna f***ing stop, right? You’ll win some, and you’ll lose some, but I will be the f***ing bee in your bonnet forever.”