Fury v Joshua organiser in concerning update as blockbuster fight nears collapse

Dana White has warned that the next few days will be crucial to the proposed Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua blockbuster after the fight was thrown into fresh doubt. The long-awaited Battle of Britain was only officially confirmed on Wednesday, with Fury and Joshua due to meet at the Principality Stadium on December 11 in what promised to be one of the biggest sporting events ever staged in Wales. But the fight has already been plunged into uncertainty, with a dispute over White's involvement threatening to derail the £150m blockbuster.

White, who runs Zuffa Boxing alongside Saudi Arabian powerbroker Turki Alalshikh, was officially named as a promoter of the contest alongside The Ring. However, Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn has disputed White's involvement, with the row spilling into the open just days after the fight was announced. Speaking to Sky Sports after Johnny Fisher's victory at the Copper Box on Saturday, White insisted he remains involved in the proposed Cardiff showdown.

"I'm involved in the fight," he said. White then took aim at Hearn, questioning why the contest had not already happened if the British promoter was genuinely committed to making it. "If Eddie Hearn really cared about this fight, first of all it would have happened a long time ago, number one," White said. "Number two, he could finance the thing himself. "The guy who's supposed to be helping the fight has been hurting the fight the entire time.

We'll all know more in the next three or four days." White's comments come after Fury himself claimed the fight was in serious danger of falling apart. In a series of videos posted on Instagram, Fury said Joshua and Hearn were trying to pull out of the contest and blamed the dispute on Hearn's objection to White's involvement. "Breaking news, AJ and Eddie are trying to pull out of the fight," Fury said. "They're saying they are not going to fight now.

"It's mainly to do with Eddie Hearn's ego. He's making up a million different things." Fury later claimed the chances of the fight going ahead were as low as one per cent. "If you've got a guy that wants to fight, and you've got a guy that doesn't want to fight, then how are you going to make that fight happen?" he said. The former world heavyweight champion also directly addressed Joshua, telling him to "pull your finger out" before warning that Alalshikh was already considering alternatives.

"Now you've got Turki Alalshikh finding alternative real men who will fight at the drop of a hat," Fury added. Hearn has insisted that White cannot be involved in the contest because of the terms of the contract signed by Joshua. Wednesday's official announcement stated that Alalshikh and White "will collaborate to promote this historic showdown", with Hearn not named among the promoters. The dispute has now become the biggest threat to a fight that was only confirmed after years of negotiations.

Fury and Joshua are both due to appear at a pre-fight press conference in London on Wednesday, when the row could become clearer.