Rarely has there ever been a staredown as intensely British as the awkward one top heavyweights Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua shared on a world stage Saturday.
As a socially awkward English person myself, I kind of loved it. You can forget your afternoon tea, royal pageantry and your fish and chips — this is what we do best, people.
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But in boxing, we can over-marinate a fight too, only to deliver a callout that spectacularly backfires when everyone is watching.
It started more than a decade ago for Fury and Joshua, when the national rivals were first linked with one another while climbing the domestic ranks.
Britain has produced a conveyor belt of heavyweight talent — from Lennox Lewis, Frank Bruno and David Haye, to more recent graduates like Fabio Wardley and Moses Itauma. Fury and Joshua were a bridge from a previous generation to our current one, and it’s a travesty that they haven’t fought each other at least twice already.
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Saturday in London, they had another chance to enjoy the kind of cinematic payoff Jaron “Boots” Ennis provided when he stormed the ring after super welterweight rival Vergil Ortiz’s lightning-quick knockout win over Erickson Lubin late last year. Issues beyond the ropes put that superfight on the shelf when the fighters themselves had so whetted the public appetite, but Fury and Joshua could be made right now.
Today.
And they could have generated for Netflix what “Boots” and Ortiz delivered for DAZN — an in-ring faceoff that provides the necessary momentum from one big-ticket event to the next. The scene could have generated a viral moment had it been done right. The only problem was that neither Joshua nor his promoter, Eddie Hearn, were in on the script.
Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua is not happening. At least not yet.
(Mark Robinson via Getty Images)
Fury’s performance was a success in the professional sense at least, as it carried him back to the win column following back-to-back losses to Oleksandr Usyk in 2024 and another temporary retirement.
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It’s his first victory since he climbed off the canvas to out-point former UFC heavyweight ruler Francis Ngannou in 2023, and arguably his cleanest win since his knockout of Derek Chisora in their third and final fight four years ago. Arslanbek Makhmudov showed Saturday he remains one-paced, with Fury able to outwork him with foot movement, a greater variety in attack and activity. “The Gypsy King” out-landed Makhmudov by a ratio greater than 3-to-1, connecting on 199 shots from 498 thrown (40%) — superior to the miserable 59 punches Makhmudov landed from 280 (20%).
From a commercial point of view, though, it left a lot to be desired, lacking the wow factor we’d seen in every installment of Fury’s thrilling, all-time great heavyweight trilogy with American puncher Deontay Wilder, or the drama of his back-and-forth wins over Ngannou and Otto Wallin.
Uninspiring rather than spectacular, Fury could perhaps have saved the show by delivering a guarantee that Joshua was next. And boxing financier Turki Alalshikh even tried to instigate it by inviting Hearn into the ring.
Hearn only seemed confused at the way in which the night had turned, though.
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“Let’s give the fight fans what they want,” Fury then begged Joshua. “Do not run from me this time. Ten years in the making, let’s f***ing dance.”
Joshua responded, but his body language spoke volumes.
Anthony Joshua listens to Tyson Fury (not pictured) after the heavyweight fight between Fury and Arslanbek Makhmudov.
(Richard Pelham via Getty Images)
He didn’t even sit upright, let alone stand or invade the ring like “Boots” did for Ortiz. He just sat there, unfazed, reminding the world that he’s never retired from boxing and continues to fight, while Fury dips in and out of the sport over five — and counting — retirements.
“He disappears, comes back, disappears,” Joshua said on Netflix. “I’m not here to chase fame or chase hype. I’m a real person, and whoever is in front of me, whether it’s him or the next person, it doesn’t matter to me.
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“I’m always in big fights, that’s just my style,” he added. “I make the big fights happen. That’s why I said to him — he works for me.”
Joshua insisted the night was Fury’s, but his unwillingness to engage stole the moment even if he did not mean to. And Fury’s subsequent chatter just made it worse, intimating that if he doesn’t score the “AJ” fight then he’ll disappear into retirement for a sixth time.
Joshua, meanwhile, has options.
Wilder, of course, is one of them when considering the puncher’s two knockdowns of Derek Chisora last week. Hearn even suggested Wilder could be the warmup Joshua needs for Fury. (Though in Joshua’s eyes, Hearn’s got it all mixed up. “[Fury] could be a warmup fight after what I saw tonight,” he said.)
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Ultimately, even if Fury and Joshua remain on completely different pages, anyone watching internationally may agree on one thing.
This wasn’t a masterclass in the ring but, rather, what British people do best: A decade of hype culminating in a stadium full of people and a global audience of millions, all staring at each other in total bewilderment, wondering what the hell is going on as a clumsy oddity unfolded in front of us.
And, frankly, even I don’t have the answer.