Here we are, then. At the one-yard line, apparently. And borrowing a sports Americanism to discuss a British super-fight? It’s more fitting than you’d think.
After all, there was talk that Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury would take place in the US, in what would have been an audacious affront to British boxing fans. Instead, Joshua vs Fury is now likely to take place at Wembley Stadium, as it should… but potentially at 2am in November, to attract a greater American viewership, according to Saudi matchmaker Turki Alalshikh.
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It is confounding how complicated these things can become. If we are to get Joshua vs Fury at all, it will require each heavyweight to win a fight in Thailand and Saudi Arabia – respectively – this week.
Anthony Joshua (left) and Tyson Fury, both pictured on 11 April (Getty Images)
On Friday morning, UK time, Fury will box a former title challenger in Mariusz Wach, 46, at a small event whose proceeds will go to charity. Fury is a former two-time world champion, but the only belt on the line in Thailand will be a special humanitarian strap, courtesy of the WBC.
In a bizarre update, Fury said: “This great fight will not be streamed live! It will only be broadcast on my hit Netflix TV show ‘At Home With The Furys’ season three.” There is no release date for that season, so you might only be able to watch Fury vs Wach after Fury vs Joshua has taken place. I’m not sure there’s an adequate adjective to convey how bizarre this is.
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Perhaps a broadcaster will buckle at the last moment. Perhaps Fury will stream the bout live on his YouTube channel. Maybe we will be limited to seeing sporadic ringside clips on social media.
Maybe we will get nothing but photos, and decades-long, Moon Landing-esque conspiracy theories. “Why is Fury’s Union Jack flag billowing? There’s no wind inside Pattaya’s Max Muay Thai Stadium.” The invisible fight.
In any case, around 36 hours later, the eyes of the boxing world will pan from Southeast Asia to West Asia, as Joshua boxes relative unknown Kristian Prenga at the Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia.
For Joshua, a former two-time champion like Fury, the Albanian is an even humbler opponent than Wach. But there is not just the factor that “AJ”, like Fury, must win at all costs; Joshua is also fighting for the first time since surviving a fatal car crash in December, which killed two of his teammates.
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Joshua vs Prenga, Fury vs Wach
Fight records (win-loss-draw)
Fury: 35-2-1 (24 KOs)
Wach: 39-13 (20 KOs)
Joshua: 29-4 (26 KOs)
Prenga: 20-1 (20 KOs)
Some might argue that Fury’s points win over Arslanbek Makhmudov in April would have sufficed as a warm-up for his long-awaited clash with Joshua. Regardless, AJ, whose last fight was a sixth-round stoppage of YouTuber Jake Paul, could not rely on his latest outing as fitting preparation for the “Gypsy King”.
And so Joshua, whom no one would have blamed for retiring after his crash in Nigeria, set up this tune-up with Prenga, 35. It seemed the final hurdle before a fight with Fury, only for the latter to claim he wanted to box again before a late 2026 date with AJ. Thus the Wach bout was made.
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This misalignment is simply the continuation of a near-decade-long trend. Joshua, 36, and Fury, 37, might have signed similar contracts recently, but they have never been on the same page.
Fury (centre-right) and Joshua exchanging words after Fury’s win over Arslanbek Makhmudov (Getty)
When Fury quit boxing (for the first of five times), Joshua was a champion. When Oleksandr Usyk ended Joshua’s last reign, Fury was a champion. In the middle of all this, during Covid, Joshua and Fury actually did sign to fight each other, only for Deontay Wilder to threaten legal action and force a trilogy bout out of Fury.
Then, in 2022, Fury abruptly set a contract deadline that would obviously be impossible for Joshua to meet, and another ‘chance’ to make the fight went begging; even Fury’s team seemed frustrated.
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More recently, in an underwhelming moment after Fury beat Makhmudov, Joshua remained sat in the first row, his microphone malfunctioning as he declined to share the ring with his compatriot. As the evening wore on, Fury said he had signed a contract but that AJ had not; moments later, even the Gypsy King’s team were surprised to hear that Netflix had announced it would stream the fight in Q4.
It remains to be seen whether Fury will travel to Saudi Arabia to face off with Joshua on Saturday, and whether there will be fresh talk of amended contracts.
Eddie Hearn (left) and Anthony Joshua both feature on the Sunday Times’ list of Britain’s wealthiest sportspeople (Bradley Collyer/PA) (PA Wire)
It has been a tedious saga, one that has worn out fans to the extent that many are barely excited for this showdown anymore.
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Putting it in America, or at 2am in London, for the sake of marginally more money? Given this will be one of the most-lucrative fights of all time anyway, that would be a final jab at the fans who elevate fights like these through their passion in the stands and endless willingness to pay for one-off cards through pay-per-view, no matter a lack of value in watching the sport this way over the long-term. Or maybe it would be the haymaker that takes those fans out for good, after years of jabs. However you want to see it.
So here we are, at the one-yard line, apparently. Again.
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