I would take that with a pinch of salt. I've lost count of how many times I've heard promoters say they're aiming for three fights in a year and then you get just the one or even zero. Pretty sure Eddie Hearn has said that about AJ for as long as I can remember and he's only fought once a year for the past three years.
Hearn knows Joshua has lost his star power and it will not be coming back. Put it this way, who does Joshua have to beat before he can be taken seriously as a contender or champion? The way I see it, Joshua never recovered from the brutal defeat he suffered at the hands of Ruiz.
I'm sure in their head they want three fights to happen as that's pretty much the max a big fighter can do and obviously the more fights the more money in their pocket but as we can see it never works out that way. Just remember this post when we're in 2024 and lets see how many fights AJ and Fury have. I'm sure we'll get at least one each but I'd be very surprised if we get much more than that and certainly not three each. I'd expect three fights combined between them.
I expect Fury to defeat Usyk and the retire. I expect Usyk to lose to Fury and then retire. I expect Joshua will win his next fight then make a lot of noise about wanting to fight Fury but it will not happen and he will retire. Things could turn out different though
With that being said, maybe we will get lucky as AJ needs a one or two tune up fights before he even considers someone like Fury and I suspect that's a big reason why that fight fell through as you'd just be throwing AJ to the wolves at that point.
Joshua had the opportunity to fight Fury a couple of months ago but refused even though Fury wanted to get him in the ring. Joshua knew his career was over if he was beaten by Fury therefore he could not take the chance. After all, Fury was WBC champion and Joshua lost his titles to Usyk.
There may not be a rematch clause as someone has to lose the belts in this situation but they may change their mind depending on the outcome of the fight and how well it does financially. If it's a huge money spinner and Abu Dhabi are willing to put up another chunk of cash for it don't be surprised if we see them go again. I could see either fighter wanting a rematch if they lose unless it's a very bad loss and they'd rather just move on. Of course there's mandatories that could throw a spanner in their plans as well. Personally I think I'd rather them just have the one fight then move onto other things.
I think having a rematch clause and then a fighter activating it will mean (for me) Fury beating Usyk twice.