Finally? While this seven-letter word could so easily be used as a tagline for the fight, it seems the long-awaited Tyson Fury Vs. Anthony Joshua fight is, at long last, set to be officially announced. As per a BBC Sport news article, the all-British showdown is expected to be announced later on this week.
The date is said to be Friday, December 11, and the venue is Cardiff’s Principality Stadium. In addition, the fight may go out on Netflix; with “final details still being hammered out between Netflix, Saudi Arabian organisers Sela and both fighters’ camps.” But Cardiff is indeed the frontrunner as far as venue goes
Let’s now see if this still-big clash does actually get announced this week. The fight, we all agree, should have happened some years ago, this when Fury and Joshua between them ruled the heavyweight landscape and were in their prime. But the two sides failed to come to an agreement. Until now. We think.
There was as fans know, some talk of the fight taking place in the US, in New York, but this one absolutely should happen here in the UK. And Cardiff is a neutral site, with Fury hailing from Manchester and AJ being a Londoner. The fight will of course sell out the cavernous Principality Stadium, even if this is another case of a fight taking place after its sell-by date.
But who wins?
Reports say Joshua will work again with trainer Ben Davison, who of course also worked with Fury for a time. Whether this helps Joshua or not we can only wait and see. Fury will be trained again by Sugar Hill. But respective trainers aside, which former champion has the most left at this stage?
Joshua, 30-4(27) is coming off that near disaster of a win over Kristian Prenga, who rocked and dropped AJ in the opening round back in July, with Joshua coming back to get the second-round KO win. Massive alarm bells rang out as a result of this near upset. Fury, meanwhile, scored a wide but dull decision win over Arslanbek Makhmudov in April, with him then getting a corner retirement win over Mariusz Wach in July. Fury, 36-2-1(25) is a little over a year the older man at 38 to Joshua’s 36 (37 next month).
While there is nothing to suggest Fury’s chin has deserted him, the opposite can and has been said of Joshua; for some time now. There was of course the crushing defeat to Daniel Dubois two years ago, and then the near-disaster against Prenga. Is Joshua “shot,” at least as far as being able to soak up and absorb a good shot? Fury has vowed to knock Joshua out when the fight rolls around.
Both British stars, of course, lost to the great Oleksandr Usyk: twice each, with both men going down on points. Fury still insists he was “robbed” of a win over Usyk. Joshua, interestingly, has been working and will continue working with Team-Usyk as he gets ready for Fury. Can Usyk possibly help AJ, though?
Yes, Joshua Vs. Fury is still huge and intriguing, but how enormous, how super-special this fight coulda-woulda-shoulda been had it happened when it was so primed and ready to happen.
Another interesting note regarding this fight is how Peter Fury sees it going. Speaking with Fight Your Corner podcast, Peter said the following:
“He [Fury] is either going to outbox [him] and he will get to Joshua or Joshua is gonna find the target and he will clean him out. So, it’s one or the other.”
Hopefully we will get to find out on December 11. Finally.
