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By Keith Idec
LOS ANGELES – Tyson Fury does not deny wanting to fight Anthony Joshua at one point.
While fully focused on WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, Fury knows that Joshua boxer no matter where in the UK would bring him a huge amount of money.
If Fury (27-0, 19 KO) beats Wilder (40-0, 39 KO) slightly favored Saturday night at Staples Center, fighting against Joshua would also offer Fury the opportunity to prove he is unquestionably the best heavyweight boxing.
The IBF, IBO, WBA and WBO titles he would win if Fury beat Joshua did not mean much to the linear champion. From Fury's point of view, Joshua won these titles only because Fury gave up those belts for treatment for alcoholism, cocaine addiction and depression after his annoyance against Wladimir Klitschko three years ago.
"Listen, I'm already number one," said Fury. "So I do not need to beat Deontay Wilder to prove it, because I'm not an old champion. I can not go up space anymore. But if he beats me, he can become number one. But if I beat him, I stay where I am. AJ's belts are only belts that he chose in the trash because they were all given to him by me – each one of them. So belts do not interest me. I already have all the belts in the front room, all in the closet, displayed.
Boxing champions usually keep their belts even after being dethroned by opponents to whom new belts are awarded by sanctioned organizations.
Joshua, 29 (22-0, 21 KO), won his first title, the IBF belt, from American Charles Martin (25-2-1, 23 KO's). Joshua, of Watford, England, eliminated Martin in the second round of their fight in April 2016 at the O2 Arena in London.
Joshua added the WBA and IBO belts when he stopped Klitschko (64-5, 53 KO) in the eleventh round of their epic encounter in April 2017 at Wembley Stadium in London. Eleven months later, Joshua defeated New Zealander Joseph Parker (24-2, 18 KO) by unanimous decision to win Parker's WBO title at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
Fury, meanwhile, is more concerned than the victory of the title he did not win by Klitschko when he beat the huge Ukrainian by unanimous decision in November 2015 in Düsseldorf, Germany.
"The only thing I miss is the green I'm going to have on December 1st," Fury said. "So yes, belts are irrelevant. I am only interested in another belt. It's green. It's the one I bring home. And is it important to know who is number two or number three? No, the only job I'm interested in is the first. And that's all. "
Wilder-Fury is the main event of a televised pay-per-view show on Saturday night. The show is scheduled to start at 9pm. ET / 18 pm PT and costs $ 74.99 to watch in HD in the United States.
Keith Idec is senior writer / columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be contacted on Twitter @ Idecboxing.
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