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Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua - Nelson's Column: Johnny Nelson discusses the potential fight between Britain's two star heavyweights

Our resident boxing expert Johnny Nelson looks ahead to a potential 'Battle of Britain' bout between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, and reveals why he feels the fight will go ahead.

Finally, we’ve heard it from the horse’s mouth. Both fighters, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, are willing and ready to get it on!

Tyson Fury has made a reasonable offer of a 60/40 split – 50/50 for the rematch and Anthony Joshua has called any potential bluff and said, “Alright let’s do it”.

Fury over the last few months has been doing numerous things. Retiring, signalling his intentions to fight, but only for half a billion pounds, then asking Oleksandr Usyk’s team to sign contracts with a deadline of a couple of days. Oh, and then retiring again!

For me, it’s all getting to the stage where it’s a little bit like the boy who cried wolf.

The thing is, now he wants people to actually believe him, but do people really believe him? Is he going to go ahead with this and set-up one of the biggest fights these shores have ever seen?

The buck stops with the fighters now, because we have heard from both of them, and apparently, they both want to do it.

Last time there was talk of a fight between these two, remember the only person you didn’t hear from was Anthony Joshua. Now we have, he has publicly declared his intentions to fight. He has agreed to the terms of the deal put forward by Team Fury.

Look, these two fighters are the only two fighters I would say are bigger than the belts and they’re in a powerful position where they will call the shots in their teams, with their promoters. If this fight doesn’t now happen, it will be on their own heads.

I will be honest with you, if I was in Anthony Joshua’s team and my opinion counted, it wouldn’t be a great idea to take this fight.

AJ has lost his last two fights and we saw how emotional and how twisted his brain was over it following his latest loss to Oleksandr Usyk.

For me, that means his heads not screwed on right or in the right place, so this might be ego talking now saying, “Let’s do it.”

The much talked about heavyweight battle of Britain clash between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua could finally be happening before the end of the year.

Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua finally appear ready to settle the score after years of calling each other out. Is the timing right for the two behemoths of the boxing world?

We sat down with Johnny Nelson to discuss Anthony Joshua's motivations for taking such a big fight in the midst of a tough period for himself.

Ahead of Fury vs Joshua, ex-cruiserweight champion of the world Johnny Nelson shares his thoughts on whether both boxers need the fight at this stage of their careers.

He needs that confidence building up again, that self believe built up, he needs to seriously believe he can go in and beat Tyson Fury, and given where he looks to be now, I am not sure he is in that frame of mind.

I must admit in the last fight against Usyk, that’s the best I’ve seen Joshua box, even though his best ultimately still wasn’t good enough.

So the current form of Anthony Joshua, I would actually give a better chance of beating Tyson Fury than the previous versions of Anthony Joshua – not that I am saying he will beat him, of course.

But you have to look at Tyson Fury and think, this guy is unbeaten, he’s the favourite, he’s the best heavyweight in the world and AJ has got to get in the mindset to genuinely believe he can go out and prove otherwise.

He’s not going in as the favourite and he knows that. But what he does have on his side is that he’s lost his last two, and he is maybe thinking he has absolutely nothing to lose.

Before the defeat in Saudi Arabia recently, he always wanted to be the best and fight for the belts, but since then, his only motivation in boxing is Tyson Fury, and my worry is that in taking this fight, it is more personal than professional.

I believe he is the only guy who can fully motivate him now, and I know I have said it before, but I truly wouldn’t be surprised if this potential fight is the last we see of Anthony Joshua inside the ring.

For Tyson Fury, the timing of calling AJ out for this fight is genius! If there’s ever a time to get Anthony Joshua in the ring, then it’s right now. He is a wounded animal.

Tyson Fury is thinking I’d better get him before he disappears because if not, there is a real chance that we will never see this fight, which would be a crying shame. Who is the best in Britain? We want that question answered, and this is as close as we have ever been to getting that answer.

My gut feeling is this fight will be made, and what an occasion that would be!

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