Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua is a fight years in the making … literally.
The two British heavyweights have been circling each other for over a decade now, with multiple fights falling apart during that time. Even Saudi boxing power broker Turki Alalshikh is having a hell of a time putting the bout together despite throwing massive amounts of money at both men for the past five years.
The last hold up? Anthony Joshua surviving a near-fatal car crash in Africa. Very fair, reasonable reason to delay
the fight. This hold-up? A contract the Saudis signed with AJ stating the Fury fight would happen in England. But now, Alalshikh wants the fight in Madison Square Garden so it can air on Netflix. It’s a bit ridiculous to hold the most anticipated heavyweight match in British boxing history in America, but he is paying the bills, sooooo….
Anthony Joshua’s manager Eddie Hearn is digging in his heels, insisting Alalshikh honor the terms agreed to in their contract. UFC parent company TKO is (allegedly) leaking emails from Hearn trying to make the manager look unreasonable in that demand. It’s a big mess and the official fight confirmation has been delayed weeks with no sign of a resolution.
Well, Tyson Fury is sick of being stuck in the back seat and has decided to take some power back in the sitution. According to ESPN, his promoter Frank Warren has declared there’s now a time limit on how long Fury will wait for the AJ fight to be resolved. If it isn’t sorted by the end of next week (September 4th, 2026), he’ll walk away from the fight.
To add some pressure, Team Fury claims they already have a ‘big, big, big’ name lined up to replace Joshua on November 20th if Joshua won’t fight. Could it be Agit Kabayel, one of the more legitimate challengers on the scene for Fury? Or could they get freaky with fights against Francis Ngannou or Rico Verhoeven?
As is often the case, boxing is a bit of a mess and the biggest fight possible may not happen. We’ll see whether Fury vs. Joshua can pull up out of the death spiral it’s been in for the past couple of weeks.
