After more than a decade of call-outs, false starts and deals falling over, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua are finally going to fight.
The British heavyweights will meet at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on December 11 — with the main event falling on Saturday, December 12, for Aussie fans.
Goodman v Nishida | Sunday September 27 from 6pm AEST | Sam Goodman takes on Japan’s Ryosuke Nishida for the interim IBF super bantamweight world title live from Tokyo on Kayo Sports.
It’ll be the first time they’ve fought for real, although they did have a crack at each other in sparring years before either became a world champion.
For fans who had given up believing this would ever happen, the announcement answered one big question and raised a bunch more. Why Cardiff? Why a Friday? And after all this time, does the fight still matter?
Why is Fury vs Joshua in Cardiff?
For a while, it looked as though one of the biggest fights in British boxing history might end up in New York.
Netflix and the event’s backers wanted a show at Madison Square Garden, but AJ wanted the fight in Britain.
His contract stipulated that it had to take place in the UK, and promoter Eddie Hearn held firm when a move to New York was proposed. That venue dispute was a major reason the announcement took so long.
Cardiff offered a good solution. Principality Stadium can accommodate a huge crowd and, crucially for a December event, has a roof that can close. It also has a later curfew than Wembley.
Joshua also knows the venue well, having fought Carlos Takam and Kiwi Joseph Parker there.
Why is it on a Friday?
A Friday fight is another sign that this event is being built for a global audience.
The card will begin on Friday night in Cardiff, but the main event is expected in the early hours of Saturday morning. That places Fury and Joshua in a Friday prime-time viewing window in the United States.
The exact ring-walk time has not yet been announced.
According to TalkSport’s Gareth A. Davies, the Friday date also avoids Saturday’s US college football audience.
For Aussie fight fans, the show falls on Saturday, December 12. A local start time will become clearer once the organisers release the running order.
Why did the fight take so long to happen?
Fury and Joshua have been close to fighting before. Getting them over the line has been another story.
Their biggest near miss came in 2021, when both held heavyweight titles and a fight for the undisputed championship appeared within reach. A US arbitrator then ruled that Fury was contractually obliged to face Deontay Wilder for a third time. Joshua then lost his belts to Oleksandr Usyk.
The pair continued to trade words, but repeated efforts to revive the fight failed. This year, even after they had agreed to meet following their tune-up bouts, the argument over whether it would take place in Britain or America held up the final announcement.
They will now meet without the world titles that once made the matchup an undisputed showdown.
Did Fury and Joshua really spar?
They did – at Finchley Boxing Club in 2010, when Fury was a young professional and Joshua was still an amateur.
Joshua later said he had heard Fury was offering his Rolex to anyone who could knock him out. He fancied his chances of winning the watch, but neither man managed to stop the other.
Joshua described the session as a “straight war” in which they both landed big shots.
Fury described Joshua as “red hot” and said he was a future heavyweight champion. Sixteen years later, the former sparring partners will finally find out which man gets the better of the other when it counts.
MORE BOXING:
‘Refused to talk to me’: Meet the insider plotting world title heartbreak for fellow Aussie
Confirmed: Long-awaited Fury vs Joshua bout locked in as ‘time for talking is over’ in British showdown
Hardman Highlights! Every KO & Knockdown | 01:55
Does anyone still care?
It is a fair enough question. Fury and Joshua could have fought for all the hardware in 2021.
Five years later, both have lost twice to Ukrainian maestro Oleksandr Usyk, and fans have heard “it’s nearly done” too many times.
Carl Froch summed it up earlier this year: “It’s past its sell-by date, but it’s still a big fight.”
They are no longer fighting to establish who is the best big man in the world. But after years of wondering what would happen if they faced each other, plenty of people will still want an answer.
Brit heavyweight Johnny Fisher reckons the interest goes well beyond boxing fans, saying “AJ and Fury transcend the boxing community.”