British-Nigerian boxer and World Champion, Anthony Joshua has put pen to paper for a two fight deal with fellow British champion, Tyson Fury after months and months of speculation on a unification bout between the two champions.
The heavyweight unification bout will be between Joshua, who holds the WBA, IBF, WBO, and IBO titles, and Fury, who is WBC and The Ring Champion at a yet to be decided venue and date.
Almost four years ago after Tyson Fury, also known as the Gypsy King stopped Wladimir Klitschko in 2015, he went into a period of depression and alcoholism, and was stripped of his titles.
Joshua told him to get fit and called him a fat fuck in a bid to maybe get Fury to go toe to toe with him in the ring. Fury has since made his comeback in spectacular fashion, and is yet to lose a single fight since his return to the big time, even winning the WBC and The Ring titles.
The Gypsy King has since defeated the Bronze Bomber, America’s Deontay Wilder in their second fight after the first fight was declared a draw by the judges.
Wilder activated a clause that compelled Fury to fight him a third time, but before their trilogy fight, Wilder picked up an injury and postponed the fight. His team asked to postpone a second time due to the COVID situation. Fury rejected the postponement and stated that he would fight Wilder in December 2020 as earlier planned, and not 2021 as proposed.
Wilder accused Fury of cheating in their fight and Fury angrily shut down any plans of a trilogy, cancelling the proposed bout with the American, and focusing on Anthony Joshua.
Joshua, on the other hand, defeated Mexico’s Andy Ruiz in Saudi Arabia to regain his titles after losing to Ruiz in their first fight held at New York City.
Following his victory over Ruiz, a fight between him and Fury was speculated, but his team was quick to quash any questions of the fight as he had to face the mandatory challengers to his title.
Joshua then faced Kubrat Pulev who was the mandatory challengers for the WBO title on November 12 at the Wembley Stadium in his home country, stopping him with a 9th round Technical Knockout to retain his WBO title, and in the aftermath of the fight, he was asked if there was to be a fight with Fury.
He replied that he was willing to fight if Fury was ready, and Fury made a video claiming that he would knock out Joshua in only three rounds.
To compare both fighters who use the same orthodox style of boxing, Joshua stands at 6 feet, 6 inches while Fury is 6 feet, 9 inches tall. Joshua, 28, has a record of 24 wins and 1 defeat, with 22 of those wins coming via knockout.
The 33-year old Fury has won 30 times and has lost just once with one draw, and has won 21 of his fights by knockout.
The two-fight deal was agreed in a way that both men get the exact same share of the money generated by the first fight, while the winner of the second fight goes away with 60% of the money and the loser, 40%.
It remains to be seen whether Joshua will have a fight before facing Fury, as there is the issue of Oleksandr Usyk, who is the mandatory challenger for the IBF title.
We are not betting on boxing legends to make the correct predictions, but most of them, including Mike Tyson have tipped Fury to get the job done over Joshua, while a number of them have picked Joshua as the favourite for the bout.
Regardless of predictions, it promises to be one of the biggest heavyweight bouts ever seen in the history of boxing
