The roar of the Miami crowd still echoed as Anthony Joshua issued his challenge, a direct line drawn to Tyson Fury. It wasn’t a polite request, but a demand – a call to silence the online bravado and settle the score where it truly mattered: inside the ring.
Joshua had just dismantled Jake Paul, a fight that initially proved surprisingly resistant. Paul, frustratingly elusive in the early rounds, refused to engage, attempting to weather the storm. But the relentless pressure and punishing body shots from Joshua eventually broke through, culminating in a devastating right hand that shattered Paul’s jaw and ended the contest.
This victory marked Joshua’s return after a 15-month absence, a period complicated by a prior knockout loss to Daniel Dubois and necessary elbow surgery. The layoff had clearly done little to diminish his power or his hunger. He was back, and focused on one name.
“If Tyson is as serious as he thinks he is,” Joshua declared, his voice resonating with conviction, “if he wants to put down his Twitter fingers and put on some gloves… let’s see you in the ring and talk with your fists.” The challenge was laid bare, a gauntlet thrown down for the self-proclaimed ‘Gypsy King.’
Lennox Lewis, observing from the Netflix broadcast team, offered a stunning assertion: the deal for Joshua versus Fury is already done, slated for 2026. He believes the long-awaited clash, a true Battle of Britain, is finally on the horizon.
The path to this potential showdown has been littered with false starts and missed opportunities. Previous attempts to stage the fight with world titles at stake crumbled, leaving both fighters navigating a landscape outside of championship contention. Yet, the sheer magnitude of the matchup continues to captivate the boxing world.
Despite questions surrounding their current form, the fight retains its allure as the biggest possible domestic contest. It’s a collision of legacies, a rivalry fueled by years of heated exchanges and unmet expectations.
The anticipation is palpable, a sense that this time, things are different. The promise of Joshua and Fury finally facing each other, regardless of championship status, represents a defining moment for British boxing, a spectacle years in the making.
Fury hasn’t stepped into the ring since his defeat to Oleksandr Usyk, adding another layer of intrigue to the potential clash. The world waits, poised for a confrontation that could rewrite the heavyweight narrative.
