Tyson Fury wants Anthony Joshua to speak for himself while their December fight hangs in doubt. Fury has plenty to say about Eddie Hearn and Dana White, but Joshua’s silence gives him an easier target: he can claim AJ does not want the fight without Joshua answering him publicly.

Fury said he was being booked to fly to London for Wednesday’s press conference before receiving a call that the fight was in trouble. He blames Joshua’s side for the latest dispute, centered on White’s involvement in the Cardiff event. Those are Fury’s claims. Joshua has not publicly said he intends to withdraw.

“How can a man at 37 years old be like a child without a voice in a fight that he supposedly wants? He hasn’t said anything at all, AJ, has he?” Fury asked during the interview. “You can’t force someone to do a fight. You can only hope that they want to do it themselves.”

That is a clever line of attack because Joshua cannot win the argument by staying out of it. Every day Hearn speaks for him, Fury can ask where AJ is. Yet silence does not prove Joshua is afraid or unwilling to fight. He may simply be leaving a contract dispute to the people handling it. Fury knows the difference, but the accusation is more useful to him than that distinction.

Fury also says he will keep preparing. He suspects the fight could be declared off, only to come back together with little time left before December 11. In his telling, taking the uncertainty as an excuse to relax would leave him unready if the call suddenly came that Cardiff was back on.

That part is harder to dismiss. With no final resolution, Fury has to train for Joshua while listening to talk of replacement opponents. Joshua faces the same practical uncertainty, even if he chooses not to discuss it in interviews.

Fury gave the matchup a “1%” chance during the conversation, then later said he still thought it might happen because he had heard the parties were already paid. His own answers show how unsettled this is. For now, Fury is keeping himself in the fight and putting the pressure on Joshua to say whether he is doing the same.

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