By Alan Baldwin
LONDON, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Former heavyweight world champions Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua came face to face on Wednesday as their long-awaited clash finally looked real after years of doubt, even in recent days, that they would ever get it together.
The pair, 38 and 36 years old respectively and veterans some way past their prime, are due to meet at Cardiff's Principality Stadium on December 11 with tickets going on sale on October 9.
Appearing together at a London 'news conference'
-- although the only reporter who tried to ask a question from the floor was told 'no journalists' by Joshua -- the two big men showed mutual respect mixed with fighting talk and occasional digs at each other without losing their calm.
With doors also opened to the public and a rowdy crowd in attendance for a show with lights and fireworks, Joshua called for a minute's silence for two close friends killed in a car crash in Nigeria late last year.
The catcalls and heckling stopped immediately, the Olympia hall completely hushed as the time ticked past.
OLD SPARRING STORIES AND BLACK EYES
Fury, the 'Gypsy King', was asked earlier about singing Joshua's praises after a sparring session years ago when his opponent was still in the amateur ranks and when he offered him a Rolex watch if he could knock him down.
"Guess what? I left that building with a Rolex on," said Fury with a smile. Joshua, in dark glasses and a white T-shirt, added his own postscript that Fury had also left with a black eye.
The respectful mood continued, with Fury shunning much of his usual bombast: "This man is a two-time heavyweight world champion, Olympic gold medallist and he has been a role model and a poster boy for British boxing for years," he declared of Joshua.
"I mostly find myself defending my arch rival to fans I meet in the street and I say to them if you could achieve 10% of what this man has achieved, you'd be doing well. That aside, we're here to fight and fight we will, and I'm looking forward to the challenge. It's been 10 years in the making."
The older Briton described himself as "bald, fat, bearded, ugly, slow and ponderous", to which Joshua laughingly replied "it's true".
"Whatever people want to say," continued Fury. "But at the end of the day I get shit done.
"This man is built like an Adonis and I'm built like a blancmange," he added. "He's made of marble, but every time he gets cracked on the jaw, he falls over. And when I crack him on that jaw, he's going to go down like a ton of bricks."
Both men spoke of the significance of holding the fight in Britain rather than in the United States or Saudi Arabia, with Netflix providing the platform and Ring Magazine owner and Saudi promoter Turki Alalshikh the money man making it happen.
Fury said it would be the "biggest of our time and of our generation".
"It's an unbelievable event, because it's been simmering nicely for a decade and a half," he added. "We've had our ups and downs, and finally now near the end of it all, we get to fight each other."
The final face off for the cameras ended in smiles, with Joshua pretending to tickle Fury who had suggested earlier that they might even go for a pint once the fight was done.
(Reporting by Alan BaldwinEditing by Toby Davis)
