Fury left that detail out while filming alongside the former heavyweight champion.
“AJ, sign the contract, big boy,” Fury said in a video posted by The Ring.
“Did you hear that? He thinks you’re scared,” Mike Tyson said.
“He’s scared, all right, because I’m going to knock him spark out,” Fury replied.
The video is clever pressure from Fury because “sign the contract” makes Joshua look responsible for holding up a fight that has been discussed for years. The reality is less convenient for that storyline.
Joshua agreed to box Fury in Britain. Organizers then pursued Madison Square Garden, forcing his team to renegotiate a material part of the original agreement. Eddie Hearn says their conditions for accepting New York have been submitted.
Tyson Fury recruits Mike Tyson for his latest taunt towards Anthony Joshua as contract negotiations continue 👀 pic.twitter.com/LXkOgHTZkk
— Ring Magazine (@ringmagazine) September 2, 2026
Every day that ticks by without ink on paper chips away at the public appetite, and more importantly, risks losing the biggest payday either man will ever see.
Enlisting an icon like Tyson is a classic distraction tactic. When an athlete brings an elder statesman of the sport to do the barking for them, it usually means the leverage is slipping out of their hands.
Fury has always relied on the court of public opinion to bail him out of tricky contract negotiations. By having Tyson mock Joshua on video, Fury attempts to shackle AJ with the “ducking” label so Joshua feels compelled to accept an unfavorable financial compromise. It is an act of real anxiety dressed up as swagger, because if this fight evaporates now, Fury loses the grand finale his entire commercial brand has depended upon for years.
