A showdown between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury has been agreed, providing ‘AJ’ is victorious in his July comeback. However, promoters Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren have provided different timelines for the long-awaited fight.
Fury made his ring return at the beginning of the month, outpointing Russia’s Arslanbek Makhmudov in a first win since 2023, before demanding a clash with perennial rival Joshua who was sitting at ringside.
‘AJ’ is yet to fight since a tragic car crash in Nigeria that took the lives of two close friends, but the former unified world champion has vowed to continue boxing and finally face ‘The Gypsy King’ after a ‘warm-up’ fight in the summer.
On Monday, it was revealed that the Londoner will face Albania’s Kristian Prenga in Riyadh on Saturday, July 25, and that an agreement was in place for Joshua to take on Fury before the end of the year.
Speaking to The Punch Podcast, Joshua’s promoter Hearn declared plans for the event to take place in November.
“We will return in July, against Kristian Prenga, and then all being well we will fight Tyson Fury in November. It is all signed from our side, done.
“Fury has said that he has signed as well so, touch wood, we are finally going to get what is unquestionably the biggest fight in the history of British boxing and maybe even close to [the biggest ever] on the world scale, as well.”
However, in an interview with talkSPORT Boxing, Fury’s long-term promoter Warren stated that he expects the fight to happen ‘sometime in October’.
“It is signed. Tyson signed up for it months ago, we have been waiting for AJ and he has now done it. So, the fight will be on and it will be on sometime in October by the looks of it.”
As a result, it seems as though further details of the deal still need to be ironed out, including whether Fury will also have an additional ‘tune-up’ before the blockbuster bout.