Two Videos, One Message
Right then, keep up, because Tyson Fury has had a busy Wednesday. Video one: if Anthony Joshua won't sign for New York in the next few days, the Gypsy King is moving on, and Agit Kabayel, Daniel Dubois and Filip Hrgovic are all on the list. Video two, a few hours later: "one man I forgot" — Oleksandr Usyk. Trilogy. In America. "I am Achilles," he said, "and I am waiting for you." He even called Usyk "Joshua's sensei", which, given the Ukrainian is now working in AJ's camp, is a proper dig.
Make no mistake, this is theatre. But it is theatre with a purpose, and if you understand the purpose you understand exactly where Fury vs Joshua is right now.
The New York Stalemate
Let's not beat around the bush. The fight everyone in Britain has wanted for a decade is stuck on one thing: postcode. Fury and event backers Sela want Madison Square Garden — we covered his U-turn on that yesterday. Joshua and Eddie Hearn want it in the UK, where 90,000 people would fill Wembley without a second thought. Neither side has blinked, so Fury is doing what Fury does: making noise loud enough that the other side feels it.
Calling out Usyk is the loudest noise available. Usyk beat him twice — a split decision in May 2024 and a clearer unanimous one in December — and Fury has never accepted either result. "It will be fair this time," he said. "I'll get a fair result here." You can read that as a genuine grievance or as a man reminding everyone that his biggest rival is now sat in the enemy corner. Both are true.
Would Usyk Actually Take It?
Here is the thing: Usyk vacated the unified titles earlier this year and has been mentioned alongside Deontay Wilder for one last dance rather than another twelve rounds with a 6ft 9in man who never stops talking. He is 39. He has nothing to prove against Fury. But Fury is right about one thing — he is the biggest cheque Usyk could still cash, and boxing has a way of finding money it was not looking for.
Where This Actually Ends
I do not think Fury fights Usyk next. I do not think he fights Kabayel, Dubois or Hrgovic next either — every one of those men has a mandatory, a rematch or a promoter with other plans. What this week has done is put a clock on Joshua. "I'm going to give this freak another few days," Fury said, and that is the only line in either video that matters.
Luke's Verdict
Fury vs Joshua gets made. It gets made because both men are running out of alternatives, because Sela's money does not care about the venue as much as Fury pretends it does, and because a compromise — Riyadh, or a UK date with an American broadcast partner — has been sat there the whole time. My prediction: an announcement before the end of September, and it is not at Madison Square Garden. The Usyk trilogy? File it next to Fury's retirements. Keep it on our news page for the next episode, because there will be one.