Anthony Joshua versus Tyson Fury is agreed and signed, with Britain’s two heavyweight rivals to finally meet in the ring.
Turki Alalshikh took to X on Monday afternoon to detail the news about the bout, writing: ‘To my friends in Great Britain – it’s happening. It’s signed.’
The long-awaited fight, which has been in the making for a decade, is set to be held in the fourth quarter of the year – meaning either October, November or December – barring any obstacles.
Anthony Joshua vs Kristian Prenga on July 25
The main obstacle is Joshua coming out unscathed in a warm-up fight against Kristian Prenga which was confirmed shortly after Alalshikh’s post.
Joshua will face the Albanian, 35, on July 25 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as part of the Esports World Cup.
Following the announcement of that summer’s bout, Joshua – who beat Jake Paul in last December – said: ‘It’s no secret I’ve taken some time to consolidate and rebuild to be ready for stepping back in to the ring and today is the next step on that journey.
‘I’m delighted to have agreed a multi-fight deal starting with July 25 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I’m looking forward to competing and picking up where I left off.’
Prenga is 6ft 5in and has won 20 of his 21 professional bouts – with all 20 wins via knockout. He last fought in February, beating American Joe Jones in Atlantic City, USA.
And Prenga is confident of making it 21 career wins in three months’ time, declaring: ‘Anthony Joshua is a great fighter, but he made a terrible miscalculation in picking me as his opponent. This is the kind of fight that changes everything in my life and his. I know they have big plans ahead after this fight.
‘I know they are overlooking me. I’m happy about that. I will derail their plans and shock the world this July in Saudi Arabia.’
Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua finally set to fight
Fury and Joshua were engaged in a peculiar war of words earlier this month when the latter was in attendance for Fury’s unanimous points win over Arslanbek Makhmudov.
After beating Makhmudov, Fury called out Joshua at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in what became an awkward stand-off with ‘AJ’ initially refusing to engage.
‘I challenge you, Anthony Joshua, to fight me next. Do you accept?’ Fury said after more attempts to get Joshua into the ring failed.
Joshua, who appeared to film much of the fight on his phone at ringside, initially seemed reluctant to be drawn out, before replying: ‘I punched you up when we were kids and I’ll punch you up again. You aren’t going to tell me what to do, I’ve been chasing you for 10 years. I’m the boss, you work for me. I’m the landlord. You work for me.’
Fury responded: ‘You [Anthony Joshua] are next. You are getting knocked out. Believe it.’
Alalshikh’s update aligns with Netflix – who earlier this month posted on social media, claiming : ‘It’s happening. Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua. This autumn, from the UK. LIVE only on Netflix.’
Fury described the muted response as ‘a bit suspect, how he handled himself’, but Joshua, 36, later hinted that he might not yet be ready to agree the fight having been involved in a fatal car crash in December that killed two of his close friends.
‘I was in a serious incident. There’s real stuff happening in my life. I’m not ducking anyone. Once I’m 100 per cent, I’ll fight,’ said Joshua, whose victory over YouTube star Paul is his only appearance in 19 months.
Now with the Prenga fight confirmed for July, once that is done fans can finally salivate at the prospect of Britain’s heavyweight rivals finally going to toe-to-toe.
