12 pints a day: Boxing champ Tyson Fury reveals he’s back on the booze and Anthony Joshua megafight is ‘nowhere near’ being agreed

Tyson Fury's heavyweight unification showdown with Anthony Joshua looks a distant prospect after the WBC king admitted that an agreement is not "imminent" – and the colorful Brit has claimed he is drinking up to 12 pints a day.

Weeks after appearing to promise that he was about to announce details of his scrap with rival countryman Joshua being sealed, fun-loving Fury called himself "a man of leisure in lockdown" and suggested that he is heavily indulging his love of beer in the absence of any fight date.

Fury's meeting with IBF, WBF and IBO title holder Joshua was set to become one of the most lucrative fights of all time this summer, but 'The Gypsy King' alluded to matters "behind the scenes" going awry as promoters Eddie Hearn and Bob Arum try to finalize a deal.

"Until I’ve got a fight, a date and hell of a lot of money in my pocket, there is no fight," Fury told iFL, warning of "a lot of things going on that people don’t know about" that could "scupper" the showpiece.

"I’ve stopped training now, I’m on holiday. I‘m doing anywhere between, eight, 10, 12 pints of lager a day at the minute. Not eating though, so I’m getting my calories through alcohol.

"There’s nothing to do, is there? I’ve done training, training, training with no further process. It’s one of those things: at the minute I’m just chilling out, being a man of leisure in lockdown."

Giant Fury's confession is bound to bring up memories of his hedonistic lifestyle after his famous win over Wladimir Klitschko in 2015, when he has admitted he would drink 100 pints a week and ballooned to around 400lb in weight.

Despite claiming he was taking time away from Twitter, Fury retweeted a post by management company MTK Global, which is thought to be heavily involved in his negotiations with Joshua, showing him playing table-tennis as part of a training bubble for stablemate Isaac Lowe, who fights on Friday.

"Let’s break it down," he continued in the interview. "Eddie Hearn is a boxing promoter. So is Bob Arum. It’s their job to sell a fight.

"Joshua is saying what he’s saying, I’m not on social media at the moment at all. So whatever they are saying is very unimportant to me.

"Nothing is actually on until you are in the ring. So yeah, we are nowhere near that at the moment.

"I can’t do nothing. It’s out of my hands. It is nothing to do with me at all. I’m just a boxer. There are a lot of things, like I say, behind the scenes that can alter a fight.

"Do I think I’m going to be fighting Anthony Joshua in the next 10 minutes? No. Do I think the fight with Joshua will eventually happen sooner or later? Yes. It has to happen. But do I think it’s imminent, right next minute? No I don’t."

Top Rank boss Arum gave a contrasting update to iFL when he was asked about the progress of the fight organization last week.

"Yeah, as far as I'm concerned," he replied when pushed for an answer about whether the fight was going ahead.

"That's what each side has said. Now we're scrambling around to get the thing signed and everything.

"But I can say clearly, based on my view on everything, that there are no more issues."