How Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua fight sunk to shameful depths

A very damaging day of chaos for boxing began with the biggest domestic heavyweight fight in the annals of the British ring – the highly anticipated world title clash between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua – being officially declared dead.

Then the grim specter of drugs left the British Boxing Board of Control feeling they had no choice but to withdraw permission for Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn to continue with Saturday night’s Battle for their Fathers and history.

The boxing community sighed desperately. The general public turned off in horror. Fury v Joshua sank into the embarrassing depths where the fine print of commercial contracts counts for more than a world title.

There are allegations that promoter Eddie Hearn (left) and Joshua (right) got stuck making a deal

It has been dragged down through the complex web of business deals in which the alleged challenger has become entangled.

There are allegations that Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has been dragging his feet in efforts to untangle that swamp to protect his Matchroom company’s poster boy from a possible fourth defeat in his last six fights, which would massively lower his market value.

That is hardly relevant. The devil is in the legal details of Joshua’s sponsorships and endorsements, which include Jaguar, Under Armour, Hugo Boss, JD Sports, Lynx, the StubHub ticket brokers, Audemar Piguet super luxury watches and the DAZN sports TV streaming network.

Hearn revealed the same when he said of Fury’s generous offer of a title challenge, despite Joshua’s two consecutive defeats to Ukrainian war hero Olexsandr Usyk: “It’s no longer as easy as fighters sign for the scholarship split. AJ could be in breach of contract with details in his business deals.”

There are believed to be clauses regarding Joshua as the A side of his fights, but that is no longer viable against the Gypsy King after AJ’s loss of his world titles to Oleksandr Usyk in three defeats in five fights.

Then Conor Benn (right) against Chris Eubank Jr (left) was thrown into chaos by Benn’s positive drug test, with the British Boxing Board of Control now refusing to approve the O2 Arena match

One of Joshua’s partnerships is with Beats. How appalled the boxing public will feel that they have withheld Fury v Joshua due to business deals with the headset suppliers among others, we will no doubt soon find out.

The mood is unlikely to improve as Joshua’s replacement is revealed as Derek Chisora ​​before December 3. That’s a trilogy few fans dreamed of seeing.

The damage to boxing – just as the most difficult game is enjoying a massive revival of interest in this country – is incalculable and partly unforgivable.

The impact on Joshua’s carefully curated image is likely to be significant. Because Fury can’t reasonably be the one to be accused of backing out, given his repeated and increasingly angry calls for Joshua to step up to the board.

Fury’s lead promoter Frank Warren says: “Either Joshua or someone on his team is delusional into thinking he’s still the biggest name here. We’ve always wanted this fight. Do they have? Really?’

Bob Arum, Fury’s US co-promoter, is more blunt: “Eddie Hearn has moved heaven and earth to delay these negotiations until we run out of time and the fight is dead. He knows his prize money would be knocked out by Fury and he would lose his cash cow.”

Hearn says, “That made us unsure of their intentions.” Warren says, “We knew they were kidding us and we had to have a fallback position.”

Joshua might have been wiser to land either on Fury, that one punch that can change everything in heavyweight boxing, or by being carried on his shield for salutes at the end of a valiant performance.

He may regret not signing on the dotted line and worry about the fine print later. Not least because public opinion as to who, if one of them has dodged this mega fight, is not in their favor.

Benn’s positive testosterone test is a darker, more problematic issue. He protests that he is innocent and we must hope he is. But when it comes to drugs in sports, the mud tends to stick, fair or not.

Money has always talked in boxing and the tens of millions at stake in Eubank v Benn – not least the seven-figure purses for the fighters – play a huge part in trying to get the fight going again.

What we now know for sure is that at the highest level, the most difficult game is controlled down to the last detail by financial giants.

That’s the most damaging aspect after a boxing nightmare day.