Legendary boxing promoter Bob Arum has posed a theory which could see Tyson Fury fight Anthony Joshua earlier than expected.

Fury has always maintained he will have a rematch with Oleksandr Usyk but Arum reckons that may not happen to bring forward a bout with his fellow Brit.

Joshua beat Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia in early March to push forward his case of a shot at becoming undisputed heavyweight champion.

Fury and Usyk will go head to head for all four belts on May 18 and it is expected that Joshua will eventually fight the winner.

Fury says he is contracted to fight Usyk twice before he considers arranging a bout with Joshua.

However, Arum has come up with a scenario which could see Fury and Usyk only battle it out once.

The 92-year-old believes if the Fury-Usyk fight in May is a classic, then a rematch would be on the cards.

But if it turns out to be a one-sided affair, Arum can see an ‘arrangement’ where a rematch is scrapped and Joshua gets to fight Fury earlier.

Arum told the Daily Mail: “I think the knock on Joshua has been that he’d lost his confidence. If a fighter loses his confidence, he’s very diminished.

“Now Joshua seems to be regaining his confidence, and if that continues Joshua will be a very dangerous fighter that could compete with anybody.

“What happens if Fury-Usyk turns out to be a classic? A fight that is so exciting and so thrilling that the public wants to see it again.

“Then that would certainly trump a Joshua fight, and contractually, it’s a fight that has to happen.”

“Now, what happens if it’s a one-sided fight and Fury wins the fight? Then maybe everybody can sit down with His Excellency Turki Alalshikh and work out some arrangement to go right to Fury-Joshua.”

“If Usyk wins the fight, I don’t think there would be that much demand for an Usyk-Joshua fight because after all they fought twice and Usyk beat him twice. So, one fight at a time, that’s my motto.”