There is plenty of ground to cover before the two might actually fight for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world, but Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua will surely continue to talk up that possible encounter until they do, and both will definitely express their confidence of picking up the victory and all four belts — not to mention the Ring Magazine title and the LINEAL!!!!!! claim.
Fury (30-0-1, 21 KO) is currently dealing with Deontay Wilder and the possibility that he will have to face Wilder a third time, despite wishing to move past it and feeling that Wilder’s time to exercise the rematch clause has come and gone. That issue will be settled in arbitration, but it did scrap plans Fury had to return Dec. 5 in the United Kingdom.
As for Joshua (23-1, 21 KO), he has to deal with Kubrat Pulev, his IBF mandatory challenger, on Dec. 12. And if he gets past that, he probably will have to fight WBO mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk.
But, again, the talk will continue until the situation changes, either one of them loses or retires or the fight actually happens, and Fury is, as always, sure he’ll be the better man in the ring.
“I’m 100 million percent confident I can beat him,” Fury said in a recent appearance on Capital Breakfast with Roman Kemp.
“I’m on a 12-year undefeated career so far. Two-time heavyweight champion of the world. The first one in history to win two heavyweight championships without losing a fight. I’m 100 percent confident I can beat anybody I go in the ring with, and that’s why I’m world champion.”
There was talk earlier of this year of the two having tentatively agreed to terms for two fights in 2021, but that’s not official and never was. The good news is that their promoters all seem legitimately interested in making it happen whenever they can, and the fighters also seem like they truly want it. Boxing is too often not a straightforward thing, so we’ll wait with the chances of something screwing up the plans or diminishing the idea by the time we get to it, but there is reason to hope, which is also too rare in boxing.