Joshua vs Fury has finally been booked – A decade too late

The Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua fight is finally locked in for the Riyadh season in 2026. And somehow, after all the years of ducking, delays, posturing and missed windows, it still feels less like destiny fulfilled and more like boxing admitting it has run out of time.

Ring Magazine broke the news that Fury will withdraw from facing Joshua next year, although everyone knows where that really comes from. Turki Alalshikh did not need to put his name on the press release – the fingerprints are clear. Saudi money did not make this fight compelling. That made it inevitable.

But let’s be honest about what is being sold here.

This is no longer the clash of undefeated titans that should have happened in 2018 or 2019. This is a rescue operation. Fury is coming off back-to-back losses to Oleksandr Usyk, preceded by a performance so flat against Francis Ngannou that it permanently damaged his mystique. Meanwhile, Joshua has yet to get past Jake Paul in December – an absurd sentence that should not exist in the same universe as a “Battle of Britain”.

That detail matters. Very.

If Joshua stumbles against Paul, the entire Fury fight turns into a farce overnight. Ring leaking this close feels premature at best, indifferent at worst. Boxing has a long history of tripping over its own hype, and that’s how it usually starts.

Fury is also expected to do a tune-up ahead of Joshua, which tells you everything you need to know about where he is. The version Usyk fought last December looked slow, soft and strangely disinterested — less “Gypsy King,” more retired billionaire going through the motions. Ring rust is no longer the problem. Time is.

By the time these two finally meet, it will likely be late 2026. At that point, the battle will not be about supremacy. It’s about narrative control – whose decline seems less serious, whose brand survives intact.

For American audiences, the excitement has already cooled. Joshua is remembered for being knocked down by Daniel Dubois. Fury is remembered for losing twice to Usyk and probably three straight if you count Ngannou. You can dress it up with history, flags and slogans, but the truth is uncomfortable:

This struggle used to be inevitable.
Now it’s just inevitable because there’s nothing left to wait for.

And that tells you everything.