Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua have both arrived in London before Wednesday’s launch news conference for their fight.
It appears the all-British heavyweight contest – more than a decade in the making – remains on for 11 December at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium following several days of uncertainty.
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Fury, 38, has travelled back from the United States, where he had been at Walt Disney World Resort with his family, while Joshua, 36, has flown in from his training camp in Dubai.
Fury-Joshua was officially announced on Thursday by Saudi powerbroker Turki Alalshikh, but doubts emerged 24 hours later amid a dispute over the role of UFC chief Dana White in the promotion.
Broadcaster Netflix said Alalshikh’s The Ring and White would collaborate to promote the event, but Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn said his fighter’s contract prevented White from having a promotional role.
White said on Saturday night he did not know whether the fight – or Wednesday’s news conference – would happen. BBC Sport now understands he will not attend the launch.
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A further potential hurdle emerged late on Monday over Fury’s enrolment in the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (Vada) testing programme.
Fury’s manager Spencer Brown has since said Fury is now enrolled with Vada, appearing to resolve another issue before the launch.
Fury and Joshua have never fought despite several previous attempts to make the all-British contest.
Wednesday’s event at the British Airways ARC in Olympia will be the first time the pair have come face-to-face since the fight was officially announced, with a limited number of tickets also being made available to the public.
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Analysis – can Wednesday reset the chaotic Fury-Joshua narrative?
Tyson Fury v Anthony Joshua in Cardiff is expected to take place in the early hours to suit US audiences and will be broadcast globally on Netflix [Getty Images]
There was at least something reassuring about seeing both men step out of cars in London on Tuesday, ready for Wednesday’s launch.
But a Fury-Joshua fight being ‘on’ has now been announced so many times it is hard to keep count.
And that is part of the problem. We have been here before and there is no way to dress up the past few days as anything other than a desperately poor look for boxing.
The majority of supporters felt Fury-Joshua had arrived too late, with both men now former champions and far from the peak of their powers.
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Yet within 48 hours of the long-awaited announcement, even some of those still excited by the contest had been turned into cynics.
Instead of discussing how Fury and Joshua match up, the conversation became about promoters, contractual clauses, competing egos and whether the fight would happen at all.
That is remarkable for a shared purse reported to be worth close to $200m (£151m), backed by some of the most powerful figures in the sport.
Hearn has alleged contractual terms around White’s involvement have not been adhered to. White has publicly attacked Hearn. Fury accused Joshua’s camp of trying to pull out.
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All of it created unnecessary uncertainty around a fight boxing has spent years failing to deliver.
With all that said, Wednesday offers an opportunity to change the mood quickly.
If Fury and Joshua both walk on stage and produce the kind of fireworks their rivalry had long-promised, some – though not all – of the noise of the past few days could fade.
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