Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua may not be fighting next after all.

Recently, it was announced Fury and Joshua signed a two-fight deal and the first fight would happen at the end of July or early August in Saudi Arabia. However, according to Fury’s promoter in Bob Arum, there have been some hurdles and it’s likely the two box other opponents the next time out.

“It will take months for the Saudis to do their due diligence on such a huge deal,” Arum explained about Fury-Joshua to The Telegraph. “It is not just a site fee, there are ancillary demands from the Saudis stretching into the broadcast deals and other things, it could take months for it all to play out. It could even take until 2022 the way it looks right now.

“The fight in July or August is dead in the water as far as we are concerned,” Arum continued about the potential Fury-Joshua fight. The two fighters need to go and have other fights this summer while the negotiations for that fight in the Middle East conclude. It is absurd what Hearn is saying that it is a done deal. If we had just done a site deal without all the other complications that have arisen, we would have a fight by now. Tyson Fury is fuming about it and is refusing to keep waiting.”

Although Fury’s promoter in Arum says that is what happening, Eddie Hearn said to The Mirror that none of that is true. Yet, the fight is still not official so perhaps this is actually true and the bout is on the verge of not happening.

Tyson Fury has not fought since February of 2020 when he scored a seventh-round TKO win over Deontay Wilder in their highly-anticipated rematch. The bout against Anthony Joshua was to unify the heavyweight titles but at this point, the trilogy with Wilder could be next.

What do you make of Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua apparently being dead in the water?