Tyson Fury Gives Joshua Fight a 1 Percent Chance and Calls David Benavidez Tougher
Tyson Fury said his December fight with Anthony Joshua has a 1 percent chance of happening and floated David Benavidez as a harder replacement.
Tyson Fury is already looking past Anthony Joshua, and the fight has not even fallen apart yet. Fury told Boxing News 24 that he gives the December 11 bout in Cardiff a "1 percent" chance of happening, blaming Joshua's team and their objection to Dana White's promotional involvement.
More interesting than the pessimism was Fury's answer when asked about replacements. He said he has heard David Benavidez mentioned as an option and called him "four to five times harder" a fight than Joshua. Fury went further, predicting Benavidez would stop Joshua in about three rounds.
"I'll take it because that's what I do," Fury said of the potential Benavidez matchup, per Boxing News 24.
The logistics make it nearly impossible. Benavidez is already booked to fight Michal Cieslak at cruiserweight in Phoenix on December 12, one day after the Fury-Joshua date in Cardiff. Switching would mean abandoning his cruiserweight campaign and jumping to heavyweight on short notice at the Principality Stadium, a venue that sold tickets on the Fury-Joshua name.
Fury and Joshua have been circling each other for years, and the December date was supposed to be the end of the saga. But with promoter tensions between White and Eddie Hearn showing no signs of cooling, Fury's 1 percent estimate might be generous.
Fury is doing what Fury does: talking past the fight to create leverage. Saying Joshua has a 1 percent chance of showing up is not a prediction, it is a negotiating tactic. If the fight falls through, he wants the public to blame AJ's side.
But the Benavidez comments are revealing. Fury calling a natural super middleweight who is moving to cruiserweight "four to five times harder" than a former unified heavyweight champion is either next-level mind games or Fury genuinely respects what Benavidez brings. Probably both.
The reality is that a Fury-Benavidez fight makes zero logistical sense right now. Benavidez has his own date booked, the weight jump would be massive, and Cardiff did not sell 70,000 tickets for that matchup. This is Fury keeping his name in headlines while the promoter war plays out behind the scenes. The fight with Joshua is still the one that prints money. Whether it actually happens is another question entirely.
