Tyson Fury And Anthony Joshua Have Agreed To A Two-Fight Deal

Tyson Fury is the current undisputed king of the heavyweight division in boxing after he dominated Deontay Wilder back in February to win the WBC crown and remain the undefeated, lineal champ. Fury and Wilder will meet for a trilogy fight at some point in the future as Wilder exercised his rematch clause, but that date, initially set for July, remains up in the air amid the COVID-19 pandemic as the two sides hope to fight in front of a full house to maximize revenue.

While Fury is in a holding pattern for a third Wilder fight, he’s already getting ready for what’s next and ensuring that he lines up a fight with the next biggest name in the division, Anthony Joshua. Joshua, a fellow Brit, was likewise once an undefeated champ before being stunned by Andy Ruiz last year in a knockout loss, the first of his career. Joshua would go on to avenge that loss with a unanimous decision victory over Ruiz back in December, and has not fought since reclaiming the WBA, IBF, WBO, and IBO titles.

Joshua’s immediate future remains murky, but in 2021 he and Fury will meet in the ring, pending everything going right for both in upcoming fights, after agreeing to a two-fight deal, per Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn.

Now, Hearn notes there are no contracts signed, but that the two have verbally agreed to financial terms of a deal, which is always the biggest stumbling block in these negotiations. Distribution will be the other hurdle to be worked out down the road, as Fury is a Top Rank fighter, who has a deal with ESPN, while Joshua has a DAZN deal stateside. However, as we’ve seen with Wilder-Fury (PBC/Top Rank), it has become easier to get cross-promotion worked out now compared to the past when HBO and Showtime were the two top dogs in U.S. boxing distribution and rarely liked to work together, barring a superfight like Mayweather-Pacquiao (and even that took years to figure out).

One would expect these bouts to take place in one of the massive arenas or stadiums in the UK, as it would be a huge fight there that could pack out the O2 or Wembley. It would be a very interesting litmus test for Joshua, who’s best win remains his star-making performance against Wladimir Klitschko back in 2017, but has not faced either of the elite level heavyweights — Wilder or Fury — yet. That knockout of Klitschko pushed him into that class, but the loss to Ruiz knocked some of the shine off of the young Brit that he needs to regain, and knows the only way to do so is by challenging the best in Fury.