
- Select a language for the TTS:
- UK English Female
- UK English Male
- US English Female
- US English Male
- Australian Female
- Australian Male
- Language selected: (auto detect) - EN
Play all audios:
Wilder and Joshua were in talks for over a year about trying to unify the entire heavyweight division.
However, as discussions continued to drag on Fury sent a text directly to Wilder to start setting up their own blockbuster bout.
In the message, the Gypsy King claims to tell Wilder that Joshua has “no bottle” as he vyed for a shot at the WBC belt.
And now the pair are gearing up to go head-to-head in Los Angeles on Saturday night.
“I’ll tell you what happened. Wilder will tell the story better than me because he’s got the messages in his phone," Fury told IFL TV.
“When this whole situation was going on with Joshua and Wilder, like they were supposed to fight and then they weren’t fighting, they were asking this much money, that much money.
“I sort of thought to myself, you know what, everyone is getting excited about these two fighting and it’s not going to happen.
“So I text Wilder and I said, ‘Look, forget Joshua, he’s not the real deal, he’s obviously got no bottle, but if you want to fight a real fighting man, who will step up and defend the
country, then you’re looking at the right man’.
We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You
can unsubscribe at any time. Read our Privacy Policy
“He said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it. F*** Joshua. Let’s do the fight. Let’s give the fans what they want’.
“So the deal was made very quickly. I phoned Robert [Smith], Robert got on the phone to [Wilder’s] manager and promoter, and the deal was done within a week.
“There wasn’t anything hard about this deal to be made. Nothing. I’ve said it many, many times.
Joshua has recently defended his heavyweight belts against Alexander Povetkin and reserved Wembley Stadium for April 13 for his next opponent - which he is hoping to be the winner of Fury vs
Wilder.
See today's front and back pages, download the newspaper, order back issues and use the historic Daily Express newspaper archive.