Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn says February is a “realistic” date for a heavyweight unification bout with Tyson Fury.
The all-British fight looked set for August before an arbitration hearing stated Deontay Wilder had a right to a third fight with Fury.
That has been scheduled for 9 October while Joshua makes a mandatory defence against Oleksandr Usyk on 25 September.
Hearn said talks with Fury’s camp will take place after those fights.
“We always wanted to do it in December,” Hearn said in an interview with TalkSport.
“But with AJ fighting 25 September and Fury now delayed until October, I think February is more realistic.”
Fury, 32, is the WBC champion while Joshua, 31, has the WBO, WBA and IBF belts.
Both camps said they had agreed to fight in Saudi Arabia on 14 August, to decide the first undisputed world heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 2000.
With crowd restrictions having been lifted, Hearn said the showdown could now be held in the UK or Las Vegas, but no new talks had been held over the ‘super fight’.
“I spent six months wasting my time so let’s get these fights out of the way and let’s see what happens,” he added.
“We’ve pretty much got a deal in place from the last conversations that I think still works and everyone would be happy with.
“I do believe Tyson Fury wants the fight with Anthony Joshua, and I know AJ wants that fight more than ever, but there are certainly people within [Fury’s] team that don’t want the fight.”
Joshua would fight Fury ‘with or without the belts’
Joshua says Fury’s camp should have been open about the rematch clause with Wilder, which was crucial to the arbitration verdict, when they began negotiating.
“That can’t be an excuse [for not fighting Joshua], they should have made it clear from the get-go,” he told Gary Neville on The Overlap.
“We got [the deal] to the line. My management team and my promoters, we’ve done everything we can to make this happen.
“They bailed out, not only on me, but on the boxing world because this is a legacy fight.”
Asked if he would fight Fury after their next fight, even if one of them loses, Joshua said: “I rate that.
“We’ll fight, 100%, let’s do it. I’ll smoke that guy. I will. It’s annoying.”
