Finally, after years of back and forth, a showdown between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury is seemingly just around the corner, and ahead of the fight, former cruiserweight world champion Tony Bellew has offered a confident prediction.
Between them, Joshua and Fury boast a combined record of 2-3 since March 2024, but both men are looking to prove that they are still amongst the heavyweight elite and a fight between the two British icons is understood to have been signed for.
However, before fight fans can get too excited, both ‘AJ’ and ‘The Gypsy King’ will have pivotal warm-up fights, that could jeopardise their meeting, with Joshua scheduled to take on Kristian Prenga in July and Fury still looking for an opponent.
Still, Fury’s opposition is expected to be similarly low-risk to Joshua’s, as not to put their long-awaited fight at risk.
Should both men come through their respective bouts unscathed, they are set to collide in November and speaking on the Fight Your Corner Podcast, Bellew confidently declared that he does not envisage the judges being required.
“The only thing that I can fully, really commit to and put my hand on my heart and say, ‘I really genuinely think this is going to happen’ is that it ain’t going the distance.”
In terms of the victor, Bellew leant towards Joshua, but admitted that he can’t forecast a win for the Londoner with any real confidence until he sees how he looks against Prenga.
“The reason that I can’t put my hand on my heart and think ‘it is Josh’ is because I need to see Josh in a ring and see what he can do.
“The case that I could make for him is, if he gets in that ring and lets his hands go for just six rounds, even if he thinks ‘I am just going to let them go’, he has got the capability of knocking anybody out.
“That is what I will be predicting, Joshua could knock him out.”
Former unified heavyweight ruler and Joshua conqueror Andy Ruiz Jnr has thrown his hat into the ring as a potential dance partner for Fury, as he looks to spoil Joshua’s plans for a mega-fight once again.