The Fastest U-Turn In Boxing
Right then, let's not beat around the bush — Tyson Fury blinked. On Saturday, holding court in Miami at a bare-knuckle show and again from his gym, the Gypsy King was telling anyone with a microphone that he was done waiting around for Anthony Joshua and ready to look elsewhere. By Tuesday afternoon he had posted artwork of himself against AJ in New York, called Madison Square Garden iconic, promised the lads a weekend away in the Big Apple and signed off with "not long now." Three days. That is all it took.
Make no mistake, this is Fury being Fury. He has retired more times than a Las Vegas crooner and he negotiates through Instagram. But the timing of this particular 180 tells you something about who holds the cards.
Joshua Said Nothing — And Won
Joshua did not respond to the threat. He did not need to. He revealed only that he had started training for his next fight, and in the background the noise about a trilogy with Andy Ruiz Jr — the man who dropped him four times at the Garden in 2019 — got louder ahead of Ruiz's return in Newark on Friday. Two weeks of AJ silence and a Ruiz comeback and suddenly Fury is the one selling the fight. If you know, you know.
Why New York Is Wrong
Here is my problem. Fury vs Joshua is the biggest fight in British boxing history. It belongs at Wembley, or Cardiff, or on a football pitch in Manchester in front of 90,000 people who have waited a decade for it. Eddie Hearn has been pushing for Britain and he is right. Both men have history at MSG — Fury climbing off the floor to win there in 2013, Joshua losing to Ruiz there in 2019 — but history is not a reason to fly the fans across the Atlantic. Money is. And that is the only reason this is going to New York.
Luke's Verdict
This fight should have happened in 2021 when both were undefeated champions. It didn't, and both have been beaten and beaten again by Oleksandr Usyk since. What we get now is two proud, faded heavyweights and a fight that will still sell out anywhere on earth. I'll be honest about the boxing: Fury's size and awkwardness still give Joshua nightmares, and I have Fury winning a messy, clinch-heavy decision that nobody enjoys. But the real story this week is simple — the man who said he was walking away is the man now doing the promoting. Fury blinked first. Follow every twist on our news page.