Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury slated for 2026, as per Ring Magazine

A few personal thoughts.

1) I still do not believe it will come off. There is no confirmation this is real, and even if it is, it just seems like the kind of thing that is condemned never to happen.

2) Openly rooting for for AJ at this point. A lot of people hate him, but he has always acted honorably outside of a couple of tantrums, and cleaned up enough of Tyson's messes that he deserves it.

3) Conventional wisdom says Fury...maybe. Maybe not. Look how much older Tyson looks compared to AJ, because AJ has lived the live of an athlete and Fury that of a train hobo. Look how much better AJ has done against Wallin and Ngannou. Fury has not won a fight in two years, not legitimately won one in three, and not won an important won in four. It comes down to whether AJ is more mentally declined or Fury more physcially declined.

4) They have both done enough that the winner of this is some sort of minor ATG...which is going to give Usyk a little push up, regardless of who wins.

That's all I got to say.

 

Huge payday for both

Gotta imagine it happens

 

Fury is 37 now and Joshua 36. Reminds me of when they finally announced Floyd vs Manny. I was so hyped up to the point of the announcement, years of anticipation and frustrations... and then I realized that Floyd was 38 and Manny was 36. Immediately killed most of the excitement I had for the fight, and of course the fight itself turned into a massive let down as Manny was unable to go into third gear while Floyd was allowed to hold like a *****.

 

They are both near-enough 'shot to pieces', so it's probably unwise to put them in tune-ups.
How can anyone trust Fury to win or impress in a tune-up when he could barely beat Ngannou over 2 years ago??
And AJ's just coming back off a 15 month lay-off and was destroyed, and his opponent next week is Jake Paul, so even if/when he wins easily next week, it says nothing about his 'current form' or confidence. He last beat an actual boxer 2 years ago (Wallin).....

Fury-AJ will sell, despite being past it's "sell by" date.

 

This. A loss shouldn't really matter. But they'll both want to be on a winning streak. Neither is going to fight anyone worth a damn prior to their big fight.

 

AJ stayed in fighting shape. Fury, who knows. He's always posting vids he records while running and doesn't look like he's blown up, but who knows if he's actually stayed in fighting shape. Also, AJ lives clean, Fury does not.

The older they both are when they land in the ring, the better off AJ is.

 

Exactly.

The excuse would always be that the loser is more declined, it would've been different in their primes, etc...

And while that could be fair comment (this fight won't necessarily spell out how prime-prime would've gone) it should still be a decent fight just as you say - they're both declined, but both capable and have always been on a pretty similar kind of level.


All that said...

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

so a warm up fight from both and then we get the big fight we've all been waiting for? hmmm...feel like we've heard this story before. banana peel incoming on one of these warm up fights.

 

I am still interested in the fight regardless of how diminished they are from the peak of when this could/should have been made

 

AJ Fury has marinated almost longer than Pac Mayweather. Everyone in Britain will watch, but it is way past use by date.

 

Of course there has to be a tune up....

 

Fury and AJ both have one foot out the door, I can't say I particularly care about this fight anymore

Frankly, Jake Paul vs AJ is both 1) a bigger fight commercially and 2) a more intriguing fight (just for the sheer circus of it) than Fury vs AJ

 

Jake Paul vs. AJ will be over in 30 seconds. I can't find that interesting. The actually interesting Jake Paul one would have been the Tank fight. That one is a science experiment. A good little man up against a not-good (but still a legitimate boxer, likely capable of winning an area-level tournament) much bigger man.

 

2026? No way. This is modern boxing. We need to wait for the automatic rematch between Joshua and Paul. Since fighters only fight once a year, 2026 is taken by Joshua Paul II. Lets let this fight marinate some more while fanboys argue that fighters deserve easy fights and big paydays. Maybe leave a few years for injuries and pull-outs. How does 2029 work for you?

 

@miniq will u give us more info