Former heavyweight champions Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua are close to finally meeting in the ring.
The British pugilists are nearing an agreement for a Dec. 11 fight at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, sources told DAZN's Chris Mannix. An official announcement could come next week.
Boxing fans have been anxiously awaiting a Fury-Joshua bout for over a decade, and the sides have been locked in tense negotiations over the last few months. It appeared as though the fight wasn't going to happen. Earlier this month, Fury said the Joshua fight was off and he'd instead pursue a trilogy fight with Oleksandr Usyk.
The sides have apparently managed to find some common ground, though. Joshua's camp, led by promoter Eddie Hearn, had been insisting that the fight take place in the United Kingdom, while pushing back against pressure to do it in New York, according to Mannix.
Both men won their most recent bouts that were thought to be tune-ups for their long-awaited showdown. Fury defeated Mariusz Wach in Thailand on July 24 after Wach failed to answer the bell following the seventh round. The next day, Joshua scored a second-round knockout of Kristian Prenga in Saudi Arabia.
While their meeting won't be for any belts, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman said last month that his organization would approve Fury-Joshua as a heavyweight title eliminator.
Fury, 38, owns a lifetime 36-2-1 record with 25 knockouts. "The Gypsy King" was the unified heavyweight champion of the world in 2015 and '16, and claimed the WBC belt in 2020. He defended his WBC title three times before losing it to Usyk in 2024.
Joshua (30-4, 27 KOs) is a two-time unified heavyweight champion. He last held the titles in 2021 before also losing them to Usyk. The 36-year-old lost his most recent title fight against Daniel Dubois in September 2024.
