Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua are on a collision course to finally fight later in 2026.
Arguably the biggest and certainly the most lucrative showdown in British boxing history looks likely to finally come to pass after so many years of frustration, near-misses and animosity.
Fury remained on track for that blockbuster clash by stopping Polish veteran Mariusz Wach in the seventh round of Friday’s mysterious non-televised main event in Thailand.
It was the self-proclaimed ‘Gypsy King’s’ second bout since ending a latest 15-month retirement from the sport that followed his rematch defeat by Oleksandr Usyk in December 2024, having seen off Russia’s Arslanbek Makhmudov at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in April.
Joshua, meanwhile, returns to face Albania’s Kristian Prenga at the Jeddah Superdrome in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night.
It is his first fight since sustaining minor injuries as a passenger in a serious car accident in Nigeria in December that claimed the lives of two of his close friends and team members, Sina Ghami and Latif "Latz" Ayodele.
Joshua last fought earlier the same month in Miami, when he knocked out YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul - who afterwards needed surgery on a broken jaw - in the sixth round of their high-profile contest.
When is Fury vs Joshua?
At the moment, we still don’t know for sure with the long-awaited super-fight having yet to be signed and sealed.
However, it has long since been widely reported that November is the preferred date for it to take place.
Turki Alalshikh is the man orchestrating negotiations under the ‘Riyadh Season’ umbrella, with the proposed bout labelled the “biggest fight in UK history”, and set to follow in the footsteps of the other gargantuan showdowns that Alalshikh has put on, with the likes of Terence Crawford taking on Canelo Alvarez, Dmitry Bivol fighting Artur Beterbiev, and Fury facing off against Usyk twice.
Where will Fury vs Joshua take place?
Reports earlier this month claimed that Wembley Stadium had been earmarked as the potential venue for this fight.
There could be a complication, however, as Alalshikh wants the bout to be watchable at a good time for television audiences in the United States and elsewhere.
As such, he has proposed the idea of an overnight card, taking place in London, to best suit the time zones across the pond.
“It depends if England give us all that we need," Alalshikh said.
"We want the fight here in England, but we want the time zone of all the world, especially in America.
"If they allowed us to have Wembley late in the night, we want to do it in England. It is about the time and viewership.”
If that was to be the case, the main card may not start in the UK until 4am in order to coincide with ‘prime time’ in the US.
Wembley typically has an 11pm curfew for most weekend events and special approval would need to be granted to extend that into the early hours of the morning.
Eddie Hearn, Matchroom Boxing president and Joshua’s promoter, has insisted that the bout will be held in the UK.
"We've got a great relationship with Turki Alalshikh," Hearn told the BBC.
"If he comes to me and says 'I want to do the fight in America for this reason', we'll all be very disappointed because I don't think there's a person on the planet that doesn't think this fight should take place in the UK.
"But he's paying the bill and the bill is extortionate, so you've got to find a way to make it work. If they want to change anything in the contract, we have to renegotiate the contract and start again."
Cardiff’s Principality Stadium has also been rumoured as a potential venue for Fury vs Joshua, having previously hosted the latter’s fights against both Joseph Parker and Carlos Takam.
However, Croke Park in Dublin has been ruled out, following initial suggestions in some quarters that the fight could take place on the same bill as Katie Taylor’s farewell contest against Flora Pili in September.
