By: Sean Crose
It appears many fight fans are eager to see heavyweight titlists Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury get it on to decide for good and all who the heavyweight champion of the world truly is. And no one seems more eager for the fight to happen than the WBC and lineal titlist himself, Tyson Fury. “Tyson Fury, the Gypsy King, the heavyweight champion of the world. Yes!” Fury declared in a video posted on Twitter Thursday. “Just got off the phone with Sugar Hill Stewart in America. We’re gonna smash AJ…one round, two rounds, three rounds, done! Yes!”
Well then.
The truth is that Fury has appeared extremely eager to face WBA, IBF and WBO champion Joshua, lately. Aside from deciding who the undisputed heavyweight king is, a Fury-Joshua fight would be an all English extravaganza, as both fighters are products of Great Britain. For his own part, Joshua – the “AJ” of the Fury video – made his own Twitter post on Thursday: a photo of the Londoner donning all his title belts. Above the picture read a caption, accompanied by an emoji of a blood drop: “Cold shoulder.” Although not as flamboyant as Fury, the towering and popular Joshua appears to be anticipating a Fury-Wilder showdown himself.
The word around boxing’s proverbial campfire is that the two men are now exceedingly close to signing a contract to face one another. That’s nothing but good news for fight fans, who are still reeling from a 2020 that saw the sport of boxing end up on the sidelines for months on end. Big fights are needed. And there are few, if any, bigger fights on the horizon than Fury-Joshua. Although both men are quite different from one another, they’re similar in several regards – they’re British, they’re of enormous size, and they now dominate the heavyweight division. Deontay Wilder, who held the WBC belt before Fury won it off him last year in a rematch of their 2018 battle, has subsequently gone under the radar since his lone defeat.
Joshua, on the other hand, handled losing in the ring much better than Wilder has. After being stunned by Andy Ruiz in 2019, Joshua came back with a more nuanced style and clear eyed approach to the crafty fighter who had taken his belt. Joshua won the rematch handily, if not easily. Whether he will be able to best the likes of Fury is unknown. Then again, it’s not known if Fury can defeat the likes of Joshua if and when they finally meet.