Anthony Joshua has vowed to do everything in his power to meet Tyson Fury in the ring.
The world heavyweight champion is set to face WBO mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on September 25.
That bout only materialised after a proposed superfight between Joshua and Fury in August was scuppered when a United States arbitrator ordered Fury to take on Deontay Wilder for a third time.
The news dealt a bitter blow to British fight fans hoping to see the two pugilists who between them own all versions of the heavyweight championship.
Joshua, however, remains optimistic a unification of the division can still occur, should he overcome Usyk and Fury triumph against Wilder.
“We were meant to have fought by now and here we are talking about it,’ Joshua told the Daily Mail.
“But it will happen. I know what people are saying about boxing politics, but I’ll promise before the end of my career I will have done everything in my power to fight Tyson Fury."
Fury, 31, pointed to Floyd Mayweather's 2015 bout against Manny Pacquiao as proof that good things come to those who wait.
That fight - the highest grossing boxing match of all time - took six years to make, but Joshua sounded upbeat that a meeting with Fury would take place on UK shores.
“Me and Fury is streets, two warriors, two fighters who have come from the amateur system in the UK, and have taken the world by storm," he said. "We’ll get it on in Britain.
“Don’t worry about age, boxing politics, don’t worry about the American dollar. This is a British UK fight which can happen at Wembley, Tottenham, the O2, York Hall.
“I look at it less as a mega-fight for the world and more from the point of view that we are guys who first met in Finchley ABC. It is a grassroots fight.”
