The long-awaited, much-hyped megafight between former heavyweight champions Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua is inching closer to being announced ... or is it?
Questions remain over if, when and where two of the world's best-paid athletes will finally share a ring after a frustrating series of failed attempts to make the fight happen. Then there is the battle out of the ring between promoters fighting for control, riches and influence. Could that power struggle KO hopes of the fight happening?
And is a rivalry that started over a sparring session in a London gym more than a decade ago finally set to play out thousands of miles from their homes and fanbases in the Nevada desert?
Here are some of the key topics of the never-ending story of whether we will ever get Fury vs. Joshua.
After many failed attempts to make the megafight, it looks highly likely that this time it will happen in November, and could even be announced in the ring after Joshua's warmup bout against unknown Kristian Prenga in Saudi Arabia on July 25. Prenga has been selected as a safe enough opponent not to derail plans. Nothing has been confirmed, but Fury has also been penciled in for a warmup bout in Dublin on Aug. 1.
A venue and date have yet to be confirmed for Fury vs. Joshua, but Netflix is the broadcaster. Major figures in making the fight declared that contracts had been signed in April.
"To my friends in Great Britain -- it's happening. It's signed," Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority, posted on social media. Alalshikh has financed some of the biggest fights boxing can make in the past few years.
"Signed, sealed, delivered! AJ v Fury is on!" Joshua's promoter, Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn, said on social media.
Following Fury's routine decision win over Arslanbek Makhmudov in April, Joshua explained that he would face off with Fury only after the fight contracts were signed and he had a warmup bout. Joshua has not boxed since defeating Jake Paul on Dec. 19 in Miami. Joshua then was involved in a car crash, which killed his two close friends Sina Ghami and Latif Ayodele in Nigeria on Dec. 29.
In a post on Matchroom's Instagram account, Joshua recently said: "They've dangled the carrot in front of me saying if I can beat Prenga I can fight Tyson Fury, so I'm fully locked in on getting the job done because that's the fight I dream of. It's a big opportunity for me and this year is a big year for me. Now I know the fight is signed and sealed, he's more than welcome to step in the ring and he'll be the last hurdle of 2026."
For his part, Fury said in April that he was only interested in fighting Joshua.
"If it ain't Anthony Joshua next, I'm not interested in boxing," Fury said in his postfight news conference. "I'll eat a thousand Easter eggs, go up to 35 stone [490 pounds]. I'm out. I'm not interested. It's either him or I'm gone again."
Some obstacles were mandatory title defenses, failures to meet contract deadlines and losses by both Fury and Joshua.
The English rivals were first seriously linked to fighting each other in 2020, when they held all four major heavyweight titles between them and agreed to a two-fight deal. But in 2021, Fury contractually owed Deontay Wilder a rematch, and Fury vs. Joshua was off before it was officially announced. They went their separate ways as Joshua twice lost to Oleksandr Usyk in 2021 and 2022, which cost him three world titles. Later in 2022, Joshua accepted an offer to challenge Fury for his WBC belt. But Fury claimed Joshua failed to meet a deadline to sign a contract and instead Fury fought Derek Chisora in December 2022.
Two years later, enter Saudi power broker Alalshikh, who pushed for the fight to be made. Those plans were ruined when Daniel Dubois knocked out Joshua in September 2024. Fury also lost twice to Usyk in 2024, then retired and the fight seemed lost. But after Joshua viciously dispatched YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul and Fury began talking about another comeback, the fight was again being discussed.
After Joshua's car crash, the fight again seemed destined to fall apart. But following Fury's comeback win in April, reports surfaced that both sides had signed contracts. And this time, no mandatory obligations are preventing the fight from moving forward since there are no titles at stake.
Alalshikh's financial backing is the biggest reason why this fight could finally happen. He wasn't involved in the early attempts, but he has a track record of getting promoters to work with each other to get the biggest fights made over the past 2½ years.
Age is also a big factor: Fury turns 38 in August, Joshua will be 37 by the time their fight date arrives. They are both unquestionably past their primes, have each lost twice to Usyk and are running out of time as elite-level boxers.
When Fury urged Joshua to "let's give the fight fans what they want, the 'Battle of Britain'" after his fight in April, most of us assumed it would be in their home of England.
But as confirmation of the megafight gets closer, it seems it might not take place on British soil but in the United States, possibly in Las Vegas.
Fight fans -- mostly from the U.K. -- have been calling for Joshua and Fury to meet for years, yet the vast majority will be priced out of attending the historic megafight if it's held in the U.S. rather than in front of 100,000 at Wembley Stadium in London. One of the problems with staging Fury vs. Joshua at Wembley or Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where Fury last boxed, is the U.K. weather in November. But Fury fought Chisora at Tottenham in December 2022, and Alalshikh promoted a middleweight fight between Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr. also at Tottenham last November.
Matchroom Boxing's Hearn, Joshua's promoter, says Joshua's contract states the fight must take place in the U.K. But the decision of when and where it happens will come down to Alalshikh, who is bankrolling the fight.
The involvement of Netflix might also explain why the fight could be heading stateside, with more viewers guaranteed in the U.S. time zones. If the chosen venue is outside of the U.K., Joshua's contract will have to be rewritten, but that is not expected to be a stumbling block to making the fight happen.
What seems like a simple question is complicated. Matchroom promoter Hearn has guided Joshua his entire professional career, but whereas Hearn previously called the shots over opponent, venue and date, it is now Alalshikh who creates the opportunities and lucrative purses. Hearn remains an influential figure and Joshua's promoter, but Alalshikh is determining Joshua's future now.
Similarly, Alalshikh has gained increasing influence on the career of Fury, who even claimed recently the Saudi will be his promoter. Three of Fury's past four fights took place in Saudi Arabia, and Alalshikh's companies played a major role in Fury's fight in London in April.
"Turki [is] the promoter of the GK [Gypsy King] till I retire," the star wrote on his Instagram on June 15.
Fury's manager, Spencer Brown, denied reports Fury has joined new U.S.-based promoter Zuffa Boxing, co-founded by Alalshikh and UFC boss Dana White, during an interview on June 17 with combat sports reporter Gareth A. Davies.
"I can categorically tell you that there's no contract with Zuffa with Tyson Fury," Brown said during the interview.
Frank Warren, of Queensberry Promotions, has been Fury's promoter since 2018. In February, it was revealed Warren was considering legal proceedings against Sela, a Saudi Arabian entertainment company involved in the fight game, and TKO Group Holdings, the parent company of the UFC. Sela and TKO co-own Zuffa Boxing. Warren remains Fury's promoter, even though his company, Queensberry, was not involved in running Fury's most recent fight in London.
Matchroom Boxing and Queensberry both declined to comment on the latest developments when contacted by ESPN.
Zuffa Boxing has even been linked with signing Fury in the past week, but Hearn insists that, according to contracts, Zuffa and White cannot have any promotional involvement in the event. Also, given Warren's legal situation with Zuffa, any involvement of Zuffa would be combustible.
"I negotiated the fight contract three months ago with Sela and Turki Alalshikh," Hearn said on June 11. "Dana White has no clue what is in that contract. No. 1, Dana White, TKO, Zuffa can have no promotional involvement in that show at all."
Zuffa Boxing did not immediately respond to ESPN's request for comment.
Fury traveled to Washington to be at White's UFC event at the White House on June 14, which fueled speculation about Fury's link to Zuffa. Fury teased a "big announcement" with White, which failed to happen last weekend.
It would be a surprise to see either Hearn or Warren absent from the news conference table when the fight is announced, but it is Alalshikh who makes the decisions now.
It seems he can. Fury turned up at the UFC event at the White House last Sunday, his first visit to the U.S. in 5½ years. His absence is believed to be due to his relationship with alleged Irish crime boss Daniel Kinahan, who used to be Fury's adviser. Kinahan was arrested in April over alleged serious organized crime offenses. Fury's presence on the White House lawn alongside President Donald Trump and White is an indicator he could fight on U.S. soil again.
If it takes place in the U.K., yes. If it goes to the U.S., fewer people in the U.K. will stay up to 4 or 5 a.m. to watch it live and it will get less attention, so maybe not. It might generate the most money, with the biggest purses, but how will it go down with the British public if the drama unfolds in the U.S. in the middle of the night?
We will have to wait and see on its significance, but the fight has lost some of its gloss of five years ago, when Fury and Joshua were both world champions. It is still a huge event and would eclipse recent big fights featuring Britons such as Lennox Lewis vs. Frank Bruno; Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko and Usyk; Fury vs. Usyk, Wilder, Klitschko; David Haye vs. Klitschko, and Carl Froch vs. George Groves II.
But how will history remember their nontitle heavyweight bout at the tail end of their careers?
When Nigel Benn fought Chris Eubank in Manchester in 1990, 16 million viewers watched the super middleweight bout. Fury vs. Joshua will be measured against the likes of that fight and also some of Ricky Hatton's big nights, such as when nearly 20,000 fans traveled from the U.K. to Las Vegas to see him fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2007. Fewer would be expected to follow Fury and Joshua to the Strip later this year.
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