Tony Bellew claims Battle of Britain negotiations have turned into a farce due Tyson Fury

Tony Bellew says Tyson Fury has turned the negotiations over a potential bout with Anthony Joshua into the ‘Fury show’.

Fury claimed his proposed Battle of Britain with Joshua was off on Monday after AJ failed to sign the contract before a deadline of 5pm. However, the Gypsy King made a U-turn on Thursday morning and said the fight was still on the cards.  

Bellew said he’s not surprised by Fury’s actions given the ‘amount of attention’ the proposed fight has received. However, he praised Joshua and his camp for ‘keeping it professional’.

Speaking exclusively to Sportsmail via Bestofbets, Bellew said: ‘I’m not surprised about the situation; Fury is a showman and he’s turning this into the Fury Show.

‘Looking at the publicity around the fight, that’s not even an official fight yet, it’s madness. It’s on, it’s off…all I can see is that AJ is keeping it professional.

‘His camp has already stated that the contract couldn’t be signed on Monday or today. Fury knows this so it’s all in the name of publicity.

‘At the end of the day, Tyson Fury has tried to face everybody and anybody. Anthony Joshua’s done the exact same thing, but with slightly less success.

Joshua suffered his second-successive loss against Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia last month

However, Fury (C) offered his British rival a lifeline by offering him a bout in December this year

‘The thing with AJ is, as Fury knows, when you back Joshua into a corner, he’ll face whoever whenever.

‘Fury knows that Joshua is game, and he also knows that he wants to go ahead with the fight, but obviously, as we’ve heard, the paperwork around fights like this are significant, and important, and until all is ironed out an announcement can’t be made.

‘So in the meantime, Fury has somehow decided to take matter into his own hands and start the build-up himself.’

Bellew says the ongoing negotiations will not impact AJ’s preparation for the potential bout. He also said Joshua would be ‘ready’ to face Fury any time in the future. 

 Fury said AJ had until Monday to sign the contract and said the fight was off if he didn’t 

Bellew referred to AJ as a ‘machine & a phenomenal athlete’ and praised the British heavyweight for always being ‘in shape’. 

He told Sportsmail: ‘Joshua’s a machine and a phenomenal athlete. He’s always in shape and therefore doesn’t have warmup fights. He’s always training, and he always wants the next best and biggest possible challenge.

‘And when the next biggest and possible challenge is Tyson Fury, he’s not going to shy away from it.

‘However, it will be interesting to see how these negotiations go, and where they go. It’s all been on Tyson Fury before as we remember.

‘For example, everything was set in Saudi Arabia before AJ’s first Usyk fight. We were all ready to go, and then Fury’s team pull the plug last minute because of legal proceedings that they knew that was already in place. So although Fury is saying it’s all on AJ…is it really though?!?’. 

Fury said he was frustrated with a lack of movement from Joshua’s team and pulled the pug on the fight despite Frank Warren claiming talks were progressing at a good pace

Joshua and AJ’s negotiations have turned into a circus. Fury took to social media to say the proposed Battle of Britain with Joshua was off on Monday afternoon.

Fury said he was frustrated with a lack of movement from Joshua’s team and pulled the pug on the fight despite Frank Warren claiming talks were progressing at a good pace. 

However, the Gypsy King has now revealed that his promoter successfully convinced him to extend the deadline for a few more days. 

The pair were said to be holding crunch talks on Thursday afternoon and it is expected an announcement will be made on Friday. 

Fury took to Twitter to say: ‘Anthony Joshua, where do we start. The deadline was Monday. Frank Warren asked me and convinced me to let it carry on for a few more days.

Joshua (above) and AJ were said to be having their final discussion over the bout on Thursday 

‘Today is Thursday. And even though I knew you wouldn’t sign this contract, I allowed Frank to continue doing meetings with your team and your broadcasters and all that, and now we have BT, DAZN and ESPN all on the same page. They are happy with everything. they’re all happy, ready to rock ‘n roll.

‘You guys asked for a lot of stuff. You wanted to be co-promoters when you’re a voluntary challenger. Guess what, I said give it to ’em. Let them be co-promoters.

‘You wanted full transparency even though you’re not an equal shareholder in this party. Do you know what I said? Give him full transparency. 

‘I’ve got nothing to hide. I’m not trying to rob anybody. I’ve never robbed anybody of a penny in my life. So now you’ve got full transparency, everything is clean and fair.’