Anthony Joshua has accepted the terms proposed by WBC heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury for a heavyweight showdown this December. Although Joshua is yet to sign a contract, agreeing to the terms means that the fight is very likely to hold. This is coupled with the fact that Joshua entered the WBC ranking at number 6 on Monday.

News of the acceptance was shared by Joshua’s 258 management on social media on Tuesday. The statement read: “258 and Matchroom can confirm, on behalf of Anthony Joshua, that we accepted all terms presented to us by Fury’s team for a fight.” They also explained that the terms have been agreed on since last week Friday, but the announcement was delayed due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Fury’s team also communicated that the contract would be sent very soon.

Part of the offer proposed by Fury includes a 60-40 purse split. There is also a rematch clause with a 50-50 purse split should Joshua win the fight. The fight is expected to hold on December 3, but no venue has been agreed upon yet, although Cardiff, United Kingdom, and places in the Middle East are under consideration.

This is one fixture that nobody thought would happen any time soon, especially as Joshua has no belts again. It was expected that Fury would go ahead with Oleksandr Usyk’s invitation and set up a match where the winner walks out as the unified heavyweight champion. But it seems Fury is more interested in an all-British match and would rather fight Joshua, who suffered a second defeat to Usyk in August.

Meanwhile, the undefeated champion, who announced his retirement after defeating Dillian Whyte back in April, is yet to officially announce that he would be coming out of ‘retirement,’ even though he never surrendered his belt as required.

If the fight goes ahead in December as planned, this would be the first time in three years that both men would fight twice in one year.

Leon Osamor