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Tyson Fury has won one fight in the past two years and nine months. Anthony Joshua, meanwhile, has enjoyed a solitary victory over the past two years and four months. Fury outpointed Arslanbek Makhmudov, the lumbering Russian heavyweight, in April while Joshua laboured through five torpid rounds before he finally cut loose and broke the jaw of Jake Paul, the former YouTuber, in December.
Their three defeats during this period are more vivid in the memory. Fury lost twice to Oleksandr Usyk – in May and December 2024 – while Joshua was knocked down four times and then stopped by Daniel Dubois inside five humiliating rounds in September that year. Despite the ravages of age, framed by yet another retirement for Fury and a traumatic period of inactivity for Joshua, they remain on course to fight each other in a showdown that will generate much more than $100m in November.
The outrageous money on offer, for a fight that would have been at its most compelling eight years ago, means the two British heavyweights will each face mediocre opposition on successive days this weekend. They need a tune-up bout, without any undue risk, to try to shake off the rust.
Fury fights first, on Friday night in Thailand, when about 1,500 people will watch him either beat up or indulge in a glorified sparring session with Mariusz Wach, a 46-year-old Polish journeyman, in Pattaya. The bout is so low-key that it will not be live on television or any streaming platform. Fury said: “This great fight will not be streamed live. It will only be broadcast on my hit Netflix TV show At Home with the Furys season three.”
In some way this is a relief because there is no sense of drama or jeopardy in a scrap that is meaningless beyond the specific aim of giving Fury a few rounds against a slow-moving human punch bag. Wach is a seriously limited technician who, 14 years ago, challenged Wladimir Klitschko for a version of the world heavyweight title. He did not win a round.
Since then, he has lost 12 more fights with the most instructive defeat happening two years ago when Moses Itauma, at the age of 19, stopped him in the second round.
Fury trained in Thailand for his comeback contest against Makhmudov and he seems to have fallen in love with the country. He has promised to donate all proceeds from Friday’s glorified exhibition to “local starving and homeless children” while suggesting “it’s a beautiful thing I’m able to do here, giving back to a great cause”.
In a move lifted from Gianni Infantino’s playbook of peace prizes, Mauricio Sulaimán Jr, the president of the WBC, has announced they will award Fury their inaugural Humanitarian title after the fight. Fury may pull his punches, at least for a while, less out of compassion for Wach than in the hope that the Polish workhorse can provide him with a longer stint of exercise.
Joshua’s return is far more meaningful as it marks a significant step in his emotional and psychological recovery since he was injured in the devastating accident in Nigeria that killed his close friends, Sina Ghami and Latif Ayodele, just after Christmas. There had been doubts Joshua would have the appetite to box again, but he believes his desire in the ring remains undiminished as he prepares to fight the obscure Albanian heavyweight Kristian Prenga late on Saturday night in Jeddah.
“It’s on Prenga, but it’s also on Fury, because I want it all,” Joshua said of his focus this week. “I believe I can become undisputed [heavyweight champion of the world]. I’ve still got the ambition and hunger. Let’s keep rolling the dice, let’s keep entertaining because this is our time.”
These typical pre-fight words have been amplified by his promoters. Barry Hearn, the president of Matchroom, said: “Prenga is dangerous, [even if] we don’t know too much about him. But Joshua is a ferocious animal at the moment. Don’t blink, look for fireworks. AJ is not taking anything for granted, he knows he’s got a job to do, and he will be ruthlessly efficient. He’s in the mood to cause an awful lot of pain.”
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The promoter added: “AJ is in an amazing place. I don’t think I’ve seen him look better than this in the 14 years I’ve known him – or look so motivated for the long term.”
Barry’s son, Eddie, who leads the promotion, has praised Joshua’s mental fortitude in the wake of personal tragedy: “Everyone’s aware of what happened and, for me, this is one of the great comebacks. I know AJ is business as usual, but we’re incredibly proud of what he’s done to return to the ring, 99.9% of people would have given up because of the mental battle with grief.
“Physically, you’ve got to overcome all these hurdles. Yet mentally, you’re broken. It’s incredible. And we know the risks that are coming.”
Dazn, who are charging subscribers an additional £19.99 pay-per-view fee to watch the fight, have sent out publicity material this week describing Prenga as an “unbeaten 21-0 knockout artist”. While all 20 of Prenga’s victories have ended in a stoppage, it is more telling that he has lost to Giovanni Auriemma, the Dutch boxer who has beaten just one other opponent in his 10 professional bouts. Prenga has only faced anonymous opponents so he seems to have been plucked out of obscurity with considerable care by Joshua’s backers.
Fury, in his typical way, said in Thailand on Wednesday that he still harbours doubts his fight with Joshua will happen. He stressed he had refused an invitation to fly to Jeddah to be ringside on Saturday night and he dismissed Joshua as a “bottle job flapper and a chinless wonder”. This is predictable Fury bluster and not to be taken seriously.
The Fury and Joshua bandwagon will not be derailed this weekend – especially when so much money is riding on the safe passing of a pair of routine warm-up bouts before, finally, they confirm the date and venue for the most overhyped fight in the history of British boxing.
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