-
Andreas Hale
Multiple Authors
Tyson Fury came out of yet another retirement to cruise past Arslanbek Makhmudov with a unanimous decision victory in London on Saturday. Fury was slick, spry and shifty enough to have Makhmudov stuck in the mud for long stretches of the fight.
Fury looked much better than anticipated, considering his time away from the ring. But Makhmudov wasn’t in the same class as Oleksandr Usyk, the only man to beat Fury. After Fury’s win, former champion Deontay Wilder‘s entertaining, yet sloppy decision over Derek Chisora on April 4 and former unified champ Anthony Joshua‘s potential return following a car accident in December, it’s starting to feel like the three could clash.
Fury and Wilder fought three times in an epic trilogy that set the heavyweight division on fire. However, that’s all we got from these three fighters in their respective primes. And now, many years later, there is a glimmer of hope that another one of these hypothetical fights will materialize.
The question is which one.
After his victory against Makhmudov, Fury called on Joshua to finally meet him later this year.
“Next, I want to give [the fans] the fight you’ve all been waiting for. I want you, AJ, Anthony Joshua,” Fury said during his postfight interview, pointing to Joshua sitting ringside. “Let’s give the fight fans what they want. The Battle of Britain. And here’s my challenge: I challenge you, Anthony Joshua, to fight me, the Gypsy King. Do you accept my challenge?”
Joshua chose to stonewall Fury.
“I’ve sat at this table with him many times,” Joshua said in an interview after the encounter. “In my heart, I’ll fight Tyson Fury tomorrow, especially after watching [this fight]. There’s no problem with me fighting. This is what I do.
“I’m not going to sit here and say, ‘Yeah, I’ll fight him.’ I’m not here to get clout. I’m here to fight. Contracts will be sent over. We’ll go through the nitty-gritty, and you’ll probably see us in the ring next, more than likely. But I’m not here to start getting in the ring and shouting in someone’s face. If you look at my track record, I’ve never done that. I’m not here for clout.”
Fury and Joshua have had negotiations multiple times over the years, and were close to an agreement in 2021, but a fight has never materialized. Joshua is well aware of Fury’s games and refused to cave to the former champion’s demands for the sake of entertainment.
“Look, he’s the one that retired,” Joshua said. “I’ve been in the game. I’ve never retired. I’ve been standing strong for the last 13 years. It’s on him, ain’t it? He disappears, comes back, disappears, comes back. I’m standing strong.”
Though a fight between the two feels more likely than ever, there’s still a distinct possibility that Joshua moves in another direction with a different heavyweight, whom he was once rumored to fight: Wilder.
Wilder didn’t appear to be on Fury’s level a week ago, and his clock is ticking a lot faster than Fury’s. If Joshua is looking at a high-profile tune-up fight, Wilder makes a lot of sense. However, Wilder remains just dangerous enough to heighten the level of intrigue in the long-overdue fight.
But Joshua, 36, holds all the cards here. Both Wilder, 40, and Fury, 37, will have to wait their respective turns in what can now be called the “legacy” tier of the heavyweight division.
The best options for the trio of former world champions are to finally face each other while the rest of the division moves on. It’s unlikely that any of the three will fight young up-and-comers Moses Itauma, Richard Torrez Jr. or Fabio Wardley. All three would love a piece of the division king, Oleksandr Usyk, but the unified champion has defeated Fury and Joshua twice each.
At this point, there’s no reason for these three to fight anyone else but each other. They still are the biggest names in the division and stand to make the most money. This is their best opportunity to win fights, rather than put themselves at risk against younger, powerful but less popular heavyweights. Any mixture of the fights — aside from Fury vs. Wilder — would be massive in the U.K., where Fury and Joshua are from, and could fill up a soccer stadium. All three know this, but rest assured that hubris will come into play and could derail plans … again.
