Why Joshua vs. Fury needs to happen sooner rather than later

The Fury-Joshua bout should take place before either suffers another big loss and diminishes the value of the fight.

Tyson Fury might not have three world heavyweight title belts for Christmas this year, but he can still be confident of earning more riches from boxing in 2025 and fighting Anthony Joshua can still be his biggest fight yet.

And despite Fury's unanimous points loss to Oleksandr Usyk (23-0, 14 KOs) on Saturday, fight fans still want to see the self-proclaimed "Gypsy King" face Anthony Joshua in a long-awaited showdown in 2025.

After being beaten twice by world heavyweight No. 1 Usyk in Saudi Arabia, which followed a split points defeat in May, there is not the same demand to see a third encounter with the classy Ukrainian. Usyk is 2-0 up after nearly stopping Fury (34-2-1, 24 KOs) in Round 9 of their first fight, and then winning more rounds in the sequel after showing he was quicker and slicker than Fury, who was four stones heavier than him.

But two-time world champion Fury has other options than Usyk, the most lucrative being a long-awaited showdown with Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs), also a two-time world heavyweight champion. With both in losing form, this fight comes after its best-before-date but interest to see the English rivals face each other has not evaporated because both have lost their last fights.

They are both coming off serious setbacks, and are without a world title belt, but that does not mean the fight is irrelevant for 2025. The fight was valued at £200 million ($251m) four years ago and, despite their defeats and waning powers, Joshua and Fury are still the biggest names in British boxing. But at their ages -- Joshua, 35, and Fury, 36, -- the fight needs to happen in 2025 if it is ever to happen when they can be considered anywhere near their primes. Waiting any longer will decrease the fight's value and another defeat before they share the ring together could end their careers.

“There is only one fight for Tyson Fury and that's Anthony Joshua,” Eddie Hearn, Joshua's promoter, said after Fury's 116-112, 116-112 and 116-112 points loss on Saturday.

“It's the biggest fight in British boxing history. It wasn't a poor performance from Tyson, he didn't look gun shy or his punch resistance was gone. He looks at the peak of his powers still. It's the one and I will be pushing his Excellency [Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority, who is the matchmaker for big events in Riyadh] to make the fight at Wembley Stadium.”

Tyson will struggle with this defeat. You remember when AJ lost to Usyk for the second time, you saw his reaction. Tyson made a lot of sacrifices and it's frustrating for these guys because they are winners.”

Joshua, who ruled as champion from 2016-2019 and then from 2019-2021, suffered a damaging defeat last time out to IBF champion Daniel Dubois and was floored four times in a humiliating Round 5 KO defeat in front of 96,000 at Wembley Stadium in September.

Given the stage Joshua is at in his career, he is likely to prioritise a match-up with Fury, rather than pursuing an immediate rematch with Dubois, who challenged Usyk to rematch in the ring in the moments after his fight with Fury on Saturday. Usyk KO'd Dubois in Round 8 in August 2023. Joshua declined the chance to fight Dubois again early in 2025, and Dubois instead will make a second title defence versus New Zealand's Joseph Parker on Feb. 22 before he hopes will be the Usyk rematch.

If Dubois retains his belt against Parker, another option for Fury may is to challenge Dubois next instead of fighting Joshua, pushing a clash with Joshua back to late 2025 at the earliest. If Parker wins, Fury will not fight his friend and training partner.

But Dubois vs. Fury is a strong possibility since both are promoted by Queensberry Promotions, and it offers Fury the chance to become a three-time world champion. The rivalry between the two Englishman is not as big as it is between Fury and Joshua, but it is still enough to swell pay-per-view revenue in the U.K and guarantee a sell-out crowd at a football stadium.

Fury is holding more cards than Joshua then, and he will wait on the outcome of Feb. 22 to decide his next move -- fight AJ next, or challenge Dubois for the IBF title if he defeats Parker.

But Joshua vs. Fury is a bigger fight than any other in the division, in terms of the money that can be generated and the interest it will generate. Quite simply, it would be the biggest fight ever to be staged on British soil, and the biggest in boxing for some time. The fight was valued at £200 million in 2020 and promoters have tried and failed to make the fight more than once. Despite the two English rivals since suffering defeats, it is now worth even more, especially with Saudi Arabian money currently transforming the sport.

Hearn, who was ringside for Usyk vs. Fury II, recently said he hoped Joshua vs. Fury would be a two-fight event, one in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the other in London, England (either at Wembley Stadium, or the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium).

But if either suffers another emphatic loss next year before Fury-AJ is made, it could deflate the demand and revenue. That is why it makes sense for the fight to happen sooner rather than later in 2025.