[ BOXING POLL ADDED ] The Heavyweight Battle of Britain - FURY vs JOSHUA

[Baofeng]

Still at works, lots of things to iron out, they are domestic rivals including their promotions, Matchroom by Hearn (AJ) and Queensberry Promotions by Frank Warren (Fury).

No doubt, both promotions know there's a lot of money riding on this, and I imagine Hearne is going to be pushing for a 50/50 split rather than taking the smaller purse. I imagine it's going to take...in typical boxing fashion a few months to sort this out, while both fighters are ageing. There will probably be issues with securing a venue, all of the normal excuses you have when it comes to these two fighters.

True, but it seems that Fury wanted to push it before the end of the year and if that fight is not going to be made, maybe the hype won't be this big. Or maybe the will go on a fight a different fighter, Joshua some B level fighter, a boxer that he can beat. And then Fury vs Usyk or Andy Ruiz.

I also see them selling out, and going to Dubai to host it. They'll want the money, and the UK side of things can't compete with that, which will be a huge shame for British fans wanting to see these two fight in their home turfs.

It had to happen in UK, one of the biggest sporting event at the end of the year for them. The fans should clamor and insist to Hearn and Warren to have this fight in British soil.

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[Hydrogen]

Anthony Joshua only threw 5 punches in some rounds when he fought Usyk. Joshua's output volume is so remarkably low. An issue which Deontay Wilder also appears to struggle with.

Wilder looked tired to me in round 2 of the trilogy meeting with Tyson Fury. I think Anthony Joshua would be the same were he to fight Tyson Fury. Except Joshua lacks the big knockout power that Deontay Wilder has which would result him him having virtually no chance versus Fury.

Many top heavyweights in boxing appear to not be capable of getting themselves in shape to throw a respectable amount of punch volume before being exhausted. Its a strange thing which makes me believe we may be witnessing the end of boxing as a legitimate sport.

[serjent05]

If I were from AJ team, I would suggest him to fight someone he would definitely win (I guess that is called a cherry pick fight; correct me if I am wrong). If AJ looses, and it looks like he will definitely gonna lose to Fury, that might end his career.

I would do the same if I am his manager/promoter.  Rushing a fight against Fury will possibly make him look bad if he lost once again.  I know there is a money to be made in the fight but it would be the career of the fighter a priority if the manager wanted to milk more money on Joshua. 

Look at what Usyk did, he is at the top of his career and he literally avoided Fury in his fight.  Sometimes, it is not wrong to chose an easier opponent if a boxer wanted to rebuild the hype around him.

And it is going to be a perfect fight for Fury to end his career undefeated. With his dirty boxing (laying on opponents) and lots of AJ muscles, AJ will be fighting oxygen, not Fury in late rounds. Imho, AJ should avoid this fight, even for a big cheque if he wants to continue boxing career. He has already proved that he is far from being the best, now it is stupid to prove that against more dangerous opponent.

I don't think it is dirty boxing when you are taking advantage of your weight and height during the fight as long as it is not a foul move, then I see them ok.  It is like a clever strategy to outwit and defeat his opponent.

[TopTort777]

And it is going to be a perfect fight for Fury to end his career undefeated. With his dirty boxing (laying on opponents) and lots of AJ muscles, AJ will be fighting oxygen, not Fury in late rounds. Imho, AJ should avoid this fight, even for a big cheque if he wants to continue boxing career. He has already proved that he is far from being the best, now it is stupid to prove that against more dangerous opponent.

I don't think it is dirty boxing when you are taking advantage of your weight and height during the fight as long as it is not a foul move, then I see them ok.  It is like a clever strategy to outwit and defeat his opponent.

So what does a "120kg guy pushes you dont by bending your back, loading your quadriceps and calfs and make you more exhausted and slowed" move called then ? Clever strategy ? Do few squads with a 120kg bar, then do some shadow boxing and repeat squads. Then tell me how you feel, if you wont blackout after few sessions. That is what I call a dirty boxing by Fury, leaning. He does this in every fight.

[Welsh]

The thing is, the fans have already started to turn against Joshua. I actually referred him to the golden boy back when he was winning. It was obvious he was going to get found out, and there was already questions on his desire, and chin. I do believe he has desire though, it's just after that Ruiz fight that took something out of him. He avoids the brawling which he was good at, and now looks to box. I'm sorry he isn't a technical boxer, he's better when he looks to knock the opponent out. Just look at him, he looks like he's been carved out of marbel.

He's now lost a lot of the fans, which is kind of ironic. Fans can be very fickle, and it's not like he's a terrible boxer, he's top four easily in his division. Anyway, I genuinely believe he doesn't just need one tune up fight, he needs several, and a big opponent before Fury. It's risky, but from a point of view of the promoters Wilder probably makes more sense. He has a chance somewhat there. If he can avoid that right hand, which I doubt he can, but if he can he probably would be able to outbox Wilder. Since Wilder isn't exactly a great boxer either.

Fury demolishes him, and his career probably derails even further. Like I said, he probably goes back to fighting, and winning against the Chisora's, and that would be a shame since when he was using his power he was exciting, and he needs to find that confidence against if he is to have any chance of success against Fury.

He almost certainly isn't going to outbox Fury.

[Baofeng]

^^ This is the same thoughts as Bob Arum, that's why he said that Eddie Hearn is bluffing. Because Arum after so many years in boxing, knows when a fighter needs a tune up fight after getting a big L, which Joshua had and it's back to back loses. And so he is negative about the fight happening this year, although he is on the side of Fury and probably Fury will beat Joshua, he might be sharing what others think that this is a very dangerous path for Joshua if he wanted to get back again from the humiliating lost from Usyk.

As for the fans, well if they see that their favorite boxers is losing, it's understandable that they too want to distant themselves from Joshua.

[Welsh]

As for the fans, well if they see that their favorite boxers is losing, it's understandable that they too want to distant themselves from Joshua.

If Joshua is your favourite boxing, then now is when you need to support him the most. Since, he's kind of losing the plot a little bit. Just look at his rather emotional speech at the end of the Usyk fight. The thing is, Joshua has been protected from the media, and that's why I've called him the golden boy. They've tried to portray him as a certain type of personality, and it seems outside of boxing he just isn't the same personality. He'll tell you himself if given the chance he grew up in a rough neighbourhood, and he isn't this clean cut guy. He was going to prison before he picked up a boxing career. I imagine Eddie saw that, and thought he could create a boxer on redemption, and therefore that's why he has been shielded to some extent, and sort of convinced to put on this persona.

We've seen that his personality differs out in the public, and when he doesn't get his own way. He was dismissive of Ruiz last time out, and he was dismissive to Usyk both times. This time he kind of put amends to it, but that's probably from either Eddie or one of his team reminding him to be graceful in defeat.

Joshua needs support either from his fans or from his team to pick himself up, otherwise his career does look pretty bleak, and I do think he's better than the majority of the division, and needs to get back to his old fighting style, and forget this technical boxing act.

[hilariousetc]

Fury every day of the week, and twice on sunday! (Yes, I'm paraphrasing Fury there). Honestly, I think there's a massive difference between the two, and while I definitely want to see it, that's only to confirm it in reality rather than in my mind, that Fury is the best thing to come out of the UK boxing scene in a very long time. Especially heavyweight.

Joshua probably gets one last big pay out after this fight, and it'll likely be Wilder. Then I see him either retiring himself or continuing to fight the Chisora's of the division. Hearne will want to milk the cow as much as he can after these fights.

Also, it'll be nice to see these two fight in the UK for once. They've fought overseas far too many times.

He's just signed a long-term deal with Dazn so he'll probably just fight bums or other fighters on Eddie's roster to please Dazn. The Dazn deal might be one of those things that's holding this fight back because I'm sure they're going to want their piece of the pie but with this being under Bricktop's production it's going to be their way or the highway for most of it and AJ/Hearn will have little say in things.

Still at works, lots of things to iron out, they are domestic rivals including their promotions, Matchroom by Hearn (AJ) and Queensberry Promotions by Frank Warren (Fury).

No doubt, both promotions know there's a lot of money riding on this, and I imagine Hearne is going to be pushing for a 50/50 split rather than taking the smaller purse. I imagine it's going to take...in typical boxing fashion a few months to sort this out, while both fighters are ageing. There will probably be issues with securing a venue, all of the normal excuses you have when it comes to these two fighters.

I also see them selling out, and going to Dubai to host it. They'll want the money, and the UK side of things can't compete with that, which will be a huge shame for British fans wanting to see these two fight in their home turfs.

Hearn and AJ have already agreed to the 60/40 which is already very generous on Fury's part (the deal even included a 50/50 split if a rematch happened so AJ isn't going to get better than that). Fury already has some venues reserved for the fight as well, which one of them was probably just for whatever bum he was going to fight before this happened, and let's be honest he's probably still going to fight some bum in Dec if AJ doesn't sign off on this. If this fight doesn't get made this year it probably never will happen or won't be until 2024 as next year will probably be taken up with Usyk and then likely a rematch later in the year. AJ also looks to be fighting in Dec according to Hearn but that will probably just be someone like Chisora.

[aioc]

^^ This is the same thoughts as Bob Arum, that's why he said that Eddie Hearn is bluffing. Because Arum after so many years in boxing, knows when a fighter needs a tune up fight after getting a big L, which Joshua had and it's back to back loses. And so he is negative about the fight happening this year, although he is on the side of Fury and probably Fury will beat Joshua, he might be sharing what others think that this is a very dangerous path for Joshua if he wanted to get back again from the humiliating lost from Usyk.

As for the fans, well if they see that their favorite boxers is losing, it's understandable that they too want to distant themselves from Joshua.

Bob knows the boxing business and boxers' behavior after the wins and the losses because he has seen it all, he's one of the oldest promoters in boxing and all are pointing for Joshua to get a tune fight first or a build-up fight first, the hardest question is what will become of Joshua's career if he losses again.

Fury is good at mind games he knows that Joshua is at his lowest, and his self-esteem is destroyed by these two losses, how can he motivate himself that he has what it takes to beat Fury when his best is not good enough against Usyk.

And the thought of what's next if he losses again, is Hearns really after Joshua getting back in boxing or he wants to end Joshua's career.

[Shamm]

A 6 foot 9 Tyson fury has a record of 32-0-1 fighting against Anthony Joshua has a record of 24-3   which is we can say that is a good matchup as well because as we can see their records even though Anthony Joshua has lesser wins than Tyson furry but out of 24, 22 of it via knockout which explain to us that he is strong enough to fight the undefeated fighter in their division Tyson furry. For sure this matchup ends with knockout.

[KTChampions]

It would be strange if the results were different. This calls into question the expediency of the fight. I would like to know what the odds of the bookmakers will be for this fight, it seems that due to the current situation we will really see something extremely one-sided. Like 1.05 on Fury and 18 on AJ. You will either have to bet on an outsider or guess in which round a knockout will occur.

Joshua should really grab this fight as an opportunity to show more of his skills in the ring. Fury has always been ready and prepared for whoever his opponents would be so we can't question the number of supporters who trust his strength in the ring. He has been showing his eagerness and dedication to making a good name in the industry.

Joshua has been preparing to fight Usyk for 11 months, and he will be ready for the fight with Fury in just 3? It's more like trying to grab more money before ending a career. Who will be interested in him after the defeat from Fury and the statistics of the last 5 fights, of which 4 were losses? However, maybe this is the best solution for him, it is difficult to judge from the outside, but in my opinion this is a desperate decision.

[Baofeng]

^^ This is the same thoughts as Bob Arum, that's why he said that Eddie Hearn is bluffing. Because Arum after so many years in boxing, knows when a fighter needs a tune up fight after getting a big L, which Joshua had and it's back to back loses. And so he is negative about the fight happening this year, although he is on the side of Fury and probably Fury will beat Joshua, he might be sharing what others think that this is a very dangerous path for Joshua if he wanted to get back again from the humiliating lost from Usyk.

As for the fans, well if they see that their favorite boxers is losing, it's understandable that they too want to distant themselves from Joshua.

Bob knows the boxing business and boxers' behavior after the wins and the losses because he has seen it all, he's one of the oldest promoters in boxing and all are pointing for Joshua to get a tune fight first or a build-up fight first, the hardest question is what will become of Joshua's career if he losses again.

Yeah, that's what I'm trying to say that's why he pointed out some positive and negative statement about Joshua and Eddie agreeing to terms of Fury and the fight being held before the end of the year.

Fury is good at mind games he knows that Joshua is at his lowest, and his self-esteem is destroyed by these two losses, how can he motivate himself that he has what it takes to beat Fury when his best is not good enough against Usyk.

And the thought of what's next if he losses again, is Hearns really after Joshua getting back in boxing or he wants to end Joshua's career.

No question about it, he already destroys Wilder even without throwing the first punch in their first punch and did so in the rematch. So this is a good strategy by Fury to call him out in public. And if this fight doesn't materialized, fans will know who stall the fight.

[JollyGood]

Am I the only person here thinking Fury is absolutely 100% serious about wanting this fight to go ahead but Joshua is dragging his heels? For me it seems as though Fury wants a warm up fight before taking on Usyk next year in February 2023 for the unification fight and he is more than confident he will demolish Joshua.

As for Joshua, he is not jumping for joy at the chance of fighting Fury for the WBC and other titles on the line considering Joshua himself has back to back defeats including losing all his heavyweight titles and belts to Usyk. Even Bob Arum (the US promoter for Fury) said Joshua and his team are not trying hard enough to make the fight happen.

Here is what Fury said:





"AJ, I haven't heard from you at all.

Just to clarify, there has never been a December 17th date, ever. There's only ever been November 26 at Wembley, or December 3rd at Cardiff. There never has been a date on the 17th.

This is it now AJ, Eddie, don't get scared now. Agree to the fight and lets give the fans what they want.

I've give you an unbelievable deal and an unbelievable opportunity, so let's go. Go time. Show time. And AJ, if you really wanted this fight, you would say you wanted it, and you would just do it. November 26, December 3, let's give the fans what they want. No way out, take the fight."


I am beginning to doubt this fight will go ahead now. If it fails to materialise I would put it squarely down to Joshua being worried about getting in the ring with Fury because Fury has made every move possible to make sure Joshua cannot refuse the fight.

[coin-investor]

Am I the only person here thinking Fury is absolutely 100% serious about wanting this fight to go ahead but Joshua is dragging his heels? For me it seems as though Fury wants a warm up fight before taking on Usyk next year in February 2023 for the unification fight and he is more than confident he will demolish Joshua.

I'm also thinking that way, Joshua is at its lowest point with two successive losses and Fury knows that fighting Joshua at this point in time is at his advantage, the 60/40 deal is already very tempting anyway you look at it Joshua got the respect out of this deal, it should have been 70/30 based on both boxer's current status and standing, but I'm against Joshua fighting Fury at this point in time, even though the offer is very hard to turn down if he turns it down people should understand him, let's give Joshua to fully recover by fighting cherry-picked a fight and learn new and developer new skills so he can get even against Usyk or beat Fury.

[hilariousetc]

Am I the only person here thinking Fury is absolutely 100% serious about wanting this fight to go ahead but Joshua is dragging his heels? For me it seems as though Fury wants a warm up fight before taking on Usyk next year in February 2023 for the unification fight and he is more than confident he will demolish Joshua.

As for Joshua, he is not jumping for joy at the chance of fighting Fury for the WBC and other titles on the line considering Joshua himself has back to back defeats including losing all his heavyweight titles and belts to Usyk. Even Bob Arum (the US promoter for Fury) said Joshua and his team are not trying hard enough to make the fight happen.

AJ probably doesn't really want the fight right now. Can we blame him? In an ideal world he would probably want to have one or two tune up fights to try get his mojo back before being fed to the sharks but Tyson pretty much unexpectedly dumped the fight on him out of the blue and it's a catch-22 situation where if he doesn't take it he might not ever get another chance, not to mention fans are going to hound him like crazy for turning the fight down. The one thing that might be holding AJ from signing onto the fight straight away is his Dazn deal. AJ has signed a long-term exclusive contract to Dazn but this fight is going to be a 100% Fury show so AJ likely won't be able to sign onto something without working Dazn into the deal which obviously complicates things. I'm sure AJ knows he's not going to get a better deal than 60/40 and might not get the chance to make this fight again and probably does want to take the fight but it's not as easy as just signing the short contract Fury sent over. The talk of this fight has died down pretty fast with Tyson practically going MIA on social media after posting about the fight almost constantly on Instagram stories, but that could be a good thing if they're trying to work it out behind the scenes. Hearn hasn't given any updates either so that leads me to speculate they're probably really busy trying to get it done. I'm sure we'll hear something soon because if this fight doesn't happen then both Fury and AJ will probably be fighting some bums in Nov/Dec and will need to get those shows on the road.

[JollyGood]

I'm also thinking that way, Joshua is at its lowest point with two successive losses and Fury knows that fighting Joshua at this point in time is at his advantage, the 60/40 deal is already very tempting anyway you look at it Joshua got the respect out of this deal, it should have been 70/30 based on both boxer's current status and standing, but I'm against Joshua fighting Fury at this point in time, even though the offer is very hard to turn down if he turns it down people should understand him, let's give Joshua to fully recover by fighting cherry-picked a fight and learn new and developer new skills so he can get even against Usyk or beat Fury.

It will be very easy for Joshua to turn down the fight but he will be unable to hide away if he spurns Fury. There is no way at all he should be fighting Fury after back to back defeats because he is not good enough to win. At least of he had a couple of warm up fights under his belt he would have confidence if stepping in to the ring with Fury. Joshua really does need time to recover before making any decision.

AJ probably doesn't really want the fight right now. Can we blame him? In an ideal world he would probably want to have one or two tune up fights to try get his mojo back before being fed to the sharks but Tyson pretty much unexpectedly dumped the fight on him out of the blue and it's a catch-22 situation where if he doesn't take it he might not ever get another chance, not to mention fans are going to hound him like crazy for turning the fight down. The one thing that might be holding AJ from signing onto the fight straight away is his Dazn deal. AJ has signed a long-term exclusive contract to Dazn but this fight is going to be a 100% Fury show so AJ likely won't be able to sign onto something without working Dazn into the deal which obviously complicates things. I'm sure AJ knows he's not going to get a better deal than 60/40 and might not get the chance to make this fight again and probably does want to take the fight but it's not as easy as just signing the short contract Fury sent over. The talk of this fight has died down pretty fast with Tyson practically going MIA on social media after posting about the fight almost constantly on Instagram stories, but that could be a good thing if they're trying to work it out behind the scenes. Hearn hasn't given any updates either so that leads me to speculate they're probably really busy trying to get it done. I'm sure we'll hear something soon because if this fight doesn't happen then both Fury and AJ will probably be fighting some bums in Nov/Dec and will need to get those shows on the road.

Even with his mojo back, Joshua will not be having any success against Fury or it is highly unlikely. The purse split is very generous, under normal circumstances any boxer including Joshua should take the challenge but Joshua (even though he is not in the right frame of mind) is aware that another defeat would be the end of his career.

This offer to fight has come at the wrong time for Joshua.

[robelneo]

It will be very easy for Joshua to turn down the fight but he will be unable to hide away if he spurns Fury. There is no way at all he should be fighting Fury after back to back defeats because he is not good enough to win. At least of he had a couple of warm up fights under his belt he would have confidence if stepping in to the ring with Fury. Joshua really does need time to recover before making any decision.

That is the right decision to make, yes all of them can make money out of this fight, but the legacy that Joshua made will banish if Fury beats him and I'm sure this will be an easy fight for Fury, Joshua's pride and confidence is wounded you don't go to another war with very low self-esteem if ever the fight push through, I can see Fury mocking him in every face off and conference they do before the fight, and this will further dump his confidence before the fight, but if he declines the fight there should be a good reason too, or Fury will still mock him for turning back, but he needs to back up.

[JollyGood]

Fury was very respectful and honest towards both Hearn and Joshua when he offered the fight to them, there was no mocking and no sarcasm. He even offered a 60/40 cut to a boxer that lost back to back fights including a rematch to retake his titles.

If it becomes official that the fight will not go ahead because Joshua and Hearn rejected it, then you can expect endless mocking by Fury towards Joshua. I am seriously leaning towards Joshua rejecting the opportunity to fight Fury because he fears losing 3 consecutive fights and his professional career ending as a result.

That is the right decision to make, yes all of them can make money out of this fight, but the legacy that Joshua made will banish if Fury beats him and I'm sure this will be an easy fight for Fury, Joshua's pride and confidence is wounded you don't go to another war with very low self-esteem if ever the fight push through, I can see Fury mocking him in every face off and conference they do before the fight, and this will further dump his confidence before the fight, but if he declines the fight there should be a good reason too, or Fury will still mock him for turning back, but he needs to back up.

[Darker45]

This is not the kind of fight that would even influence a little as to how boxing's future would shape. Joshua does not anymore belong to the elite level. As a matter of fact, when he was knocked out by Ruiz, he's not anymore the boxer that everyone is looking up to. And now that he's also suffered a couple of losses from Usyk, he's effectively become just a heavyweight ex-champ.

Joshua doesn't stand a chance against Fury. He'd lose by KO or TKO.

[hilariousetc]

Even with his mojo back, Joshua will not be having any success against Fury or it is highly unlikely. The purse split is very generous, under normal circumstances any boxer including Joshua should take the challenge but Joshua (even though he is not in the right frame of mind) is aware that another defeat would be the end of his career.

This offer to fight has come at the wrong time for Joshua.

It's not going to be the end of his career. Nobody expects him to win just like they didn't with Usyk. Best he can do is give a great performance and get the critics back on his side. Even after Fury there's plenty of other options - Wilder, Ruiz trilogy, and other fighters on Hearn's roster like Chisora and Whyte etc and I'm sure Eddie will give him some tune up fights if this Fury fight doesn't happen. Frank Warren did re-emerge the other day to say they put a pause on negations after the Queens death so at least this fight isn't also dead. I was getting a little worried with the radio silence of all parties, but maybe they're busy negotiating now. Like I said before, I'm sure AJ and Hearn don't want to let this fight go but that Dazn deal is going to have to be worked into the contract somehow as I can't see them stepping aside.