Joshua vs Fury is too late – but that’s not the biggest problem behind this fight

So, Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua is much too late. Speak to any sports fan in the street, and that’s the prevalent point they’ll make. But it’s not just that the British super-fight is years too late; with a version of contracts initially signed this spring, the fight is months too late within this year alone; and despite Eddie Hearn playing down the idea of 3am ring walks in Cardiff, he wasn’t exactly emphatic – prepare for the fight to be hours too late, to serve an American audience.

When the two behemoths clash on 11 December, whether in the dead of night or in its doorway, they will meet in the twilight of their careers. This is no longer a fight to crown the greatest heavyweight of a generation.

That shipped sailed in 2022, when Joshua’s eligibility was audited by Oleksandr Usyk for a second time. And if you thought you could still catch a glimpse of the sails on the horizon, as if the turbulent seas of the heavyweight division might usher this particular ship back into shore, it drifted out of view for good in 2024, when Usyk added two wins over Fury to his resume.

Tyson Fury (left) and Anthony Joshua will do battle after years of waiting (Getty)

What about a fight to crown the best British heavyweight in the sport right now?

That prospect was ground into powder when Daniel Dubois floored Joshua four times in five rounds under the Wembley arch, two years ago, with a performance that suggested he would likely do the same to Fury. Even this May, when Dubois was dropped twice by Fabio Wardley before battling back to win down the stretch, you had to wonder whether Fury and “AJ” would withstand Wardley’s weapons nowadays.

Perhaps the bigger issue with Joshua vs Fury, at this stage in their careers, is that it might not even tell us who is the better of the two. It might simply tell us who is worse right now.

You could argue there are plenty of results in the heavyweight division that do not categorically prove superiority; “it only takes one punch”, goes the cliche, but that does mean a fighter sometimes requires a couple of wins over another to convince fans (an AJ vs Fury rematch may come in 2027, in fairness). Or, a particular type of performance may be needed. But even then, if you take Dubois’s one-sided showing against Joshua as an example, had they met three years earlier, perhaps the fight would have gone drastically differently.

At least Joshua (30-4, 27 KOs) and Fury (36-2-1, 25 KOs) have aged together, with the “Gypsy King” a little over one year older than his compatriot. Yet the most crucial element around this fight has always been this: you want to feel that either man could genuinely win.

It is easy to say the fight should have happened five years ago, when Joshua was unified champion and Fury held the WBC belt. Indeed, the bout was signed that summer, but Deontay Wilder threatened legal action against Fury, who was then tied up by a trilogy fight with the American while AJ boxed Usyk for the first time.

Fury was dropped twice in his third clash with Deontay Wilder – but won in the end (Getty)

Organise Joshua vs Fury in the aftermath of those results, and Fury would have been a considerable favourite, having beaten Wilder for a second time while Joshua suffered his second loss in four fights.

Fast forward three years and, yes, the fight would have felt very late already, but one could argue it would have felt more balanced; Fury had just sustained his first loss, a narrow decision versus Usyk, while Joshua was on a streak of three emphatic knockouts.

So, from a timing perspective, Joshua vs Fury fight taking place in the embers of 2027 is a disappointment, a disgrace – however you want to word it – but if the former world champions were meeting at a point of mutual vulnerability, that would be a consolation.

That doesn’t necessarily seem to be the case, though.

Fury, 38, did appear past his peak in his two outings this year, even if the history books will offer up pages that read: def. Arslanbek Makhmudov via unanimous decision (119-109, 120-108, 120-108); def. Mariusz Wach via seventh-round TKO. He lacked a killer instinct against Makhmudov in April, although he did find his rhythm eventually (as he emerged from retirement for the fifth time), and while that instinct appeared against Wach in July, the Pole, well below world level even in his prime, was 46 years old.

Meanwhile, Joshua pulled off a daring escape against Kristian Prenga one night after the Wach fight, stopping the Albanian in round two, having been shockingly dropped twice in the opening frame. Some argue that Joshua’s chin has long been suspect, but against an unknown opponent like this, the 36-year-old might have offered evidence that it will cost him dearly against a fighter of Fury’s calibre, even though the Gypsy King is not famed for his punching power.

Joshua had to climb off the canvas twice in round one to beat Kristian Prenga this summer (Getty)

Rewind to last December, and Joshua’s six rounds with YouTuber Jake Paul barely constitute competitive action – certainly they were unfitting preparation for the Fury fight, thus the Prenga bout was booked.

But the bigger concern came 10 days after AJ stopped Paul.

Sitting in the back of a crashed car on a Nigerian motorway, a scathed Joshua survived, but his teammates Sina Ghami and Latif “Latz” Ayodele were not so fortunate. Joshua’s friends lost their lives that day, and the weight of the loss is still evident when AJ speaks. It is natural to wonder whether that weight encumbered him when he struggled desperately against Prenga.

So, Fury must be the favourite in this fight, where ‘imbalanced’ is a more concerning descriptor than ‘overdue’. Still, a painstaking delay may be the very thing that has disrupted that delicate balance.

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