Fans of Tyson Fury will be concerned to hear his latest bold claims about the much-anticipated Anthony Joshua bout.

In recent weeks, images have surfaced showing a Fury physically miles from the prime conditioning he showed in the months leading up to the Deontay Wilder fights.

This has led many to question whether the Gypsy King has been struggling to motivate himself amid the complications that have arisen in the fight negotiations.

Earlier this month, his US co-promoter Bob Arum stated that the fight was all-but secured. However, yesterday Fury himself poured cold water on this, claiming that it’s "nowhere near" being done and dusted.

Controversy

The bout has been plagued with controversy, due to the ongoing situation with the MTK Global co-founder Daniel Kinahan.

According to a BBC Panorama investigation, last year he was named in an Irish court case as the kingpin of the notorious Kinahan cartel. The BBC claim his father Christy 'the Dapper Don' Kinahan ran one of the biggest drug cartels in Europe and was eventually convicted. Allegedly, Daniel took over as the boss of the business.

Although Daniel has not been formally charged with drug-related offenses, police in Ireland and around the world are hunting him down. According to the Irish Mirror, he was recently forced to flee from his hideout in Dubai.

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The BBC Panorama investigation alleged MTK Global, formerly MGM, was originally set up as a way of laundering the Kinahan cartel drug money and has become a huge player in the sport. Kinahan was said to be Tyson Fury’s adviser and crucial in brokering the deal for the fight.

According to the same investigation, Kinahan is still involved heavily in the sport, but there have been calls for Irish TV channels and even BBC radio to boycott the Fury/Joshua bout.

Is there more going on behind the scenes with the Kinahan involvement causing these negotiations to hit brick walls? Only time will tell.

Other Issues

There are often lots of stumbling blocks in big fight negotiations, so it could just as easily be another factor. By the sounds of it, Tyson Fury himself isn’t exactly expecting a conclusion soon.

His latest social media posts and interview answers suggests he may not be in the best mindset to be preparing for Joshua. Yesterday, Fury claimed he was no longer in training, is now on holiday and even talked about other opponents for this year.

Today, talkSPORT online boxing editor Michael Benson tweeted a Fury quote, from an interview with MTKGlobal, which read: "I could drink 14 pints and still give AJ a hiding… I'm not training anymore. I only need six/seven weeks anyway for these bums. I don't need no big, great sparring partners for a bodybuilding type of guy, I just need the local binmen."

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Considering the Joshua fight will be the most important of his career to date, the words coming from Fury’s mouth suggest that this bout really is far away, or it may even be in danger of collapsing.

I’m sure I speak for most boxing fans when I say, I hope Fury is just being loose with the truth and is deep into the mind games he is famous for.

Fury’s hilarious dismantling of his opponents in the lead up to fights has made him an icon. While the bashing of Joshua seems mandatory, Fury’s previous sentiments about the state of the negotiations and his lack of training does set alarm bells ringing.