Promoter Bob Arum says Fury v Joshua ‘will never happen’ and predicts AJ will lose titles to 38-year-old Pulev
PROMOTER Bob Arum is adamant Tyson Fury will “never” fight Anthony Joshua - because Kubrat Pulev will win the unified titles.
WBA, IBF and WBO champion Joshua, 30, defends his trio of belts against 38-year-old Pulev on June 20 at Tottenham’s stadium.
AJ has to come through the mandatory defence in order to set up a historic undisputed decider against new WBC titleist Fury - who dethroned Deontay Wilder.
But Top Rank boss Arum denied he has been in talks with Eddie Hearn over the unification bout - because he believes Pulev will knock AJ out.
He told The Times: "Fury-Joshua is never going to happen.
"Pulev is going to knock Joshua out so why would I talk to Eddie, who I love dearly, about a Joshua-Fury fight?
“I think Pulev wins and then I negotiate with myself to do a Pulev-Fury fight.
"I am co-promoter of Tyson and the other co-promoter is Frank Warren. I would not talk to Eddie about a fight without Frank's participation.
“Frank's never even talked with Eddie."
It came after AJ’s promoter Hearn said: “I spoke to Bob Arum on Tuesday and we’ve been talking about how the deal would work.
“We’ve also said we’re willing to do the deal and sign the deal now for December, obviously subject to AJ winning and Fury winning.”
But after Arum watched his former fighter Andy Ruiz Jr upset Joshua in June before losing the rematch, the veteran promoter cannot see a way Pulev loses to the 6ft 6in heavyweight.
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He added: "Joshua was the man on top and then he got knocked out by Andy Ruiz who fought almost all his fights with us, so we know how good and not so good he is.
“The fact Joshua got knocked out should have sounded alarm bells. The fight he had to regain his belts I discount completely because Andy could not control himself, didn’t train for the fight and came in obese.
“Even then Joshua did not engage with him, he outboxed him. Pulev is yards and yards better than Andy Ruiz."