Heavyweight contender Carlos Takam’s manager has revealed that ‘98 per cent’ of the negotiations were done for a fight with Tyson Fury before the WBC champion decided to wait until next year.

Fury was hoping to get out at the end of 2020 after the Deontay Wilder trilogy fell through and Takam was being muted as one of the possible opponents for a December 5 date in London.

But the inability to secure a crowd for the fight then led to those plans being scuppered as the money was not there to carry out the event.

And Takam’s manager Joe DeGuardia has now come out to speak about just how close they were to landing the Fury world title fight before The Gypsy King decided to go another route.

"We really wanted that fight," DeGuardia told Sky Sports. "We thought it would be a great fight for Carlos and a good fight for boxing, and I thought it would fit well. We're disappointed.

"I think he knew he would have a tough fight with Carlos, a guy who has got a lot of experience and a risky fight, and instead opted for the guy who had the optics of being undefeated, but not as difficult as Carlos would be.

"He [Takam] was 100 per cent confident. He clearly thought that he was going to win. He was training very hard and was very much looking forward to the fight.

"I think we were at I would say 98 per cent done [in negotiations] and then it just changed in one day. Not necessarily with Fury, we were done with every other aspect, and maybe Fury's team probably didn't want Carlos for the reasons we just discussed, I would imagine."

Fury’s promoter Bob Arum has now come out and said that the Brit will fight Anthony Joshua next in an undisputed clash if he comes through Kubrat Pulev on December 12.

If Joshua is beaten by Pulev, Arum has confirmed Fury will then turn to the Wilder trilogy.