Tyson Fury fears he cannot pay Anthony Joshua enough money to ever fight him.
The British heavyweight rivals have failed to ever get a deal over the line despite coming desperately close.
They had terms agreed for an undisputed super-fight in August 2020 until Fury was ordered into a contracted trilogy with Deontay Wilder, 37.
Joshua, 33, then went on to fight OleksandrUsyk twice, losing both on points to leave his career at an impasse.
Following the double defeat, AJ returned in April by beating Jermaine Franklin, 29, having turned down a December date with Fury.
The Gypsy King also claimed he sent an offer Joshua’s way to fight for his WBC title in September.
So when Fury spoke out to promote his new Netflix docu-series, he conceded that the domestic dust-up may never happen.
He said: “I cannot get him in the ring for any amount of money.
“I’ve offered him world title shots and extremely large amounts of money, but he ain’t going to make the fight.
“Me and my team, my lawyers, have come to the conclusion and accepted the fact that AJ won’t fight me for any money or any titles.
“I saw footage of him recently training by punching a mattress – I’m not sure if it was taken off TikTok or one of his social media accounts, but I’ve no idea what was going on there.”
Joshua now returns on Saturday against Robert Helenius, 39, after Dillian Whyte, 35, was withdrawn amid a failed drug test.
Meanwhile, Fury, 34, faces ex-UFC champion, Francis Ngannou, 36, next on October 28 in Saudi Arabia.
It comes after he failed to agree terms for a title unification earlier in the year with Usyk, 36, who now fights Daniel Dubois, 25, instead.
Fury said: “Usyk was supposed to be fighting me at Wembley last April, but that never happened.
“Now he’s fighting Daniel Dubois in a three-title unification fight for a purse of $8million, which makes no sense because 30 per cent of the purse for fighting me would have been worth around £13 million to him, so he’s passing up more than twice as much money. -Sunsport
