Whether Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua lands in London or Las Vegas, boxing already lost

Whether it takes place at Wembley Stadium, inside Las Vegas' MGM Grand, or outside my front yard, it's still five years too late.

Visit michezonews.co.za for more information.

That's really all I have to say about Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua. But I have a few hundred more words to play with, so let me explain why.

The colossal all-British showdown should've happened — at the latest — in 2021, when the two heavyweights occupied all four belts in boxing's blue-ribbon division. But we missed the boat on what should've been the most important fight in British boxing history. 

Don't get me wrong, when Fury and Joshua finally lace up the gloves later this year, it will still be the biggest fight Britain has ever seen, or the U.S. has ever seen involving two British fighters — I'll go more into that later — but nothing can hide the fact that it is no longer a meaningful matchup.

Fury and Joshua could hang up the gloves at the conclusion of 2026, and it wouldn't really come as much of a shock. Fury has done it about eight times already, to be fair. 

Back to the point, though, the fight no longer has much value. It is a cash grab. In all likelihood, five years down the line, no one will be reminiscing about it. 

Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua have teased this same song and dance for years.Mark Robinson via Getty Images

Case in point: Amir Khan vs. Kell Brook. That fight could've been made for about a decade during the 2010s, and England would've come to a standstill. Instead, they chose to do it at the end of their careers. It was still massive, but by the time it happened, it was also pointless. Both men retired after the fight, and nobody in Britain has ever mentioned it again — well, not really, but you get the idea. It's been forgotten already. 

That is probably what's going to happen to Fury vs. Joshua. It will be one of those fights that marks the end of an era — an era of disappointment. An era of over-marination. An era of lost fights.

It is an absolute travesty that we never got to see Fury, Joshua and Deontay Wilder all share the ring at the peak of their powers. Instead, boxing gave us only one side of that triangle — the trilogy between Fury and Wilder, probably the most memorable series of fights in the past decade of the sport. Imagine if we had gotten that again with Joshua and Wilder and with the two Brits.

Let me take you all the way back to 2010, to a sparring session between a rising contender named after a great heavyweight from the ‘80s and Britain's next hope for an Olympic gold medal. 

"He rushed out at me, he threw a one-two and left hook and — bash — he hit me with an uppercut right on the point of the chin," Fury recalled to the BBC of sparring Joshua. "If I'd had a weak chin like David Price, I'd have been knocked out for a month."

"He's very, very, very good and he's only young. Watch out for that name, Anthony Joshua, he is one prospect for the future."

And Fury called it just right. Joshua went on to win Olympic gold after that interview and quickly established himself as a force in the paid ranks of the heavyweight division.

In 2015, Fury upset the odds against Wladimir Klitschko, capturing three heavyweight world titles and ending a disappointing period for the division. He was forced to vacate the IBF belt, which Joshua picked up five months later against Charles Martin.

Two Brits under the age of 30 suddenly had three of the championships in boxing's glamor division. The stage was perfectly set for the biggest all-British fight in more than 20 years. But it never happened. Instead, Fury was out of the ring for almost three years due to mental health struggles and his prolonged case with UK Anti-Doping.

Tyson Fury won his first world titles in 2015. Anthony Joshua followed suit in 2016.Simon Stacpoole/Offside via Getty Images

It was disappointing not to see the contest materialize, however it may have been for the best. The fight became infinitely bigger in 2021 after Joshua's stardom had gone through the roof and Fury was coming off a win over Wilder. Both Brits had all four belts now, and the meeting was set to be the sport’s first post-pandemic superfight. 

Months of negotiations ensued, and finally a deal was reached. Then an 11th-hour courtroom verdict ordering Fury to face Wilder in a trilogy shattered the dreams of millions of Brits. Fury overcame Wilder in a third meeting that will go down as a fight for the ages, but two weeks prior, Joshua lost his belts to heavyweight newcomer Oleksandr Usyk — and suddenly Britain's sporting event of the century was no more.

It has since taken four years, three new British prime ministers, and at least two Fury retirements for the pair to stop circling one another and finally decide to fight. More than 15 years after their names were first linked and more than a decade after both were simultaneously heavyweight champions, they are finally choosing to get it on.

But now it is too late. 

Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury are finally expected to fight sometime in late 2026.John Walton - PA Images via Getty Images

One fighter will be 38 years old and the other 37 by the time they clash. Fury vs. Joshua could've been this generation's Chris Eubank Sr. vs. Nigel Benn, but instead it has ended up as the next Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao. A fight postponed to the final stretch of both men's careers — although Pacquiao is still somehow getting the better of welterweight champions — where the eventual in-ring action risks turning off a generation of potential boxing fans.

So if Turki Alalshikh and Dana White and whoever else wants to take Fury vs. Joshua to the United States, so be it. Because I'm tired of hearing about Fury and Joshua. Let them fight, retire, and we can move on to the next generation of heavyweights — hopefully ones who actually want to fight when it matters.

Here's hoping Daniel Dubois and Moses Itauma fill the void Fury and Joshua have left with their career decisions.

And if that doesn't work, who knows? Maybe Joshua or Fury will come out of retirement in 10 years, fight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in an exhibition bout, and then we can have the geriatric Brits rematch on Netflix?

Read full story at source