Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury must finally agree to fight, says former world heavyweight champion David Haye.
Haye, a two-weight world titlist, was the star of British heavyweight boxing before the advent of Joshua and Fury.
The former WBA heavyweight champion is convinced that now is the time for Fury and Joshua to finally fight.
“That’s the biggest fight they could both possibly have. They should be pushing it, they should be pressing it, they have to be,” Haye told Sky Sports.
“They both need each other, for their own legacies, different reasons. They both need to say Anthony Joshua was in the same era as Tyson Fury, vice versa, and they battled it out to figure out who won.”
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Both Fury and Joshua lost their world titles to Oleksandr Usyk. Fury has just returned to boxing after a year-long break, while Joshua is coming back to training after recovering from a car accident in which two of his close friends died.
Talks are ongoing for Fury and Joshua to fight this year, with the latter likely to take his own warm-up bout first.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn revealed that they have received a contract for the Fury fight, which is under discussion.
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Haye acknowledges both boxers are past their fighting peak. But what matters, he said: “They didn’t fight each other in their prime but we got to see it in the end. Just like Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao didn’t fight in their prime [but at their] commercial peak. Maybe this is their commercial peak.
“Maybe they will earn more money now than they would have done when it was first talked about.”
Fury’s 12 rounds with Arslanbek Makhmudov will have prepared him for the Joshua fight.
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Tyson Fury grabbed the mic and bellowed a challenge for Anthony Joshua to fight him next, but failed to get a clear answer from his rival.
“A nice stepping stone to the big one, which is Anthony Joshua,” Haye said.
“You look at it from Tyson Fury’s point of view he’s selected an opponent the same dimensions as Anthony Joshua, someone big and strong and isn’t too slick in terms of head movement, who has vertical arm defence similar to AJ.
“He believes what he still has left and what he believes he has is more than enough to beat Anthony Joshua. And that’s a massive fight that the fans want to see.”
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