Fury vs Joshua History: Eleven Years, Three Collapses, No Fight

Key points: The fight was agreed for 14 August 2021 before an arbitrator ruled Fury owed Wilder a third bout In September 2022 Fury set a deadline, Joshua's team ignored it, and Fury cancelled on Instagram The 2026 attempt collapsed over whether to stage it at Wembley or Madison Square Garden Both men have since lost to Oleksandr Usyk, twice each Neither has held a world title since 2024 Tyson Fury announced on Sunday night that his fight with Anthony Joshua is off. He did it on Instagram, in a video, blaming Joshua entirely. He did exactly the same thing in September 2022. Same month, same platform, same conclusion. The difference is that four years ago there was still time. 2021: the court ruling This was the closest it ever came, and the ending was almost comic in its timing. In March 2021, Eddie Hearn announced that Fury and Joshua had signed a two-fight contract. On 16 May, Fury confirmed the first would take place on 14 August in Saudi Arabia, with the WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO titles all on the line. It would have produced boxing's first undisputed heavyweight champion since 1999. The following day, an arbitrator named Daniel Weinstein ruled that Fury was contractually obliged to give Deontay Wilder a third fight, and that it had to happen by 15 September. One day. The announcement was less than twenty-four hours old. Frank Warren's public position afterwards was that until an accommodation could be reached with Wilder's camp, he could not say the Joshua fight would definitely happen. It did not. Fury fought Wilder in October. Joshua fought Usyk in September and lost his three belts at Tottenham. Everything that followed flows from those two months. 2022: the deadline By the following autumn, both men needed it more. Fury had beaten Dillian Whyte in April and announced his retirement. Joshua had lost to Usyk again in Jeddah in August. On 5 September, Fury reversed his retirement and called Joshua out on social media, offering him a shot at the WBC and lineal titles. Joshua accepted the next day, telling Fury on Twitter to contact his management if he was really about it, and adding that he would be ready in December. Hearn said on the 7th that the team had accepted in essence, while noting there were a lot of conversations still to be had. A tentative date of 17 December in Cardiff was floated. On 23 September, Fury issued an ultimatum: if it was not done by Monday, he was moving on. Joshua's team dismissed the deadline outright, saying there was no chance of a deal being finalised by then and that they still intended to negotiate. On 26 September, Fury posted: 'Well guys, it's official.' He fought Derek Chisora in December instead. 2024: the division moved without them While the two of them argued, Usyk beat both. He took Joshua's titles in 2021 and beat him again in 2022. He beat Fury in May 2024 and again in December. By the end of that year, the two most marketable heavyweights in Britain had four defeats between them against the same man, and neither held a world title. Joshua was knocked out by Daniel Dubois at Wembley in September 2024. Fury retired again in January 2026. The fight that would have crowned an undisputed champion in 2021 had become a fight between two former champions, which is a different proposition entirely. 2026: the stadium The last attempt was arranged around Riyadh Season, with both men taking tune-ups first. Fury stopped Mariusz Wach in Thailand in July. Joshua boxed Jake Paul, then Kristian Prenga in Jeddah, where he was dropped twice in the first round before recovering. Then it collapsed again, and this time the reason was the smallest yet. Joshua and Hearn wanted Wembley. The Saudi organisers and Netflix wanted Madison Square Garden. Neither side moved. Hearn said they were running out of time. Reports suggested Joshua had until Friday to agree to America. On Sunday, Fury declared it dead and challenged Usyk to a trilogy in November instead. What it cost Three collapses, three different causes: a legal obligation, a missed deadline, a disagreement about geography. Only one of them had anything to do with boxing. Fury is 38 and has boxed once in two years, against a 46-year-old. Joshua is 36, has fought sparingly, and was on the floor twice in a round against Kristian Prenga six weeks ago. Whatever version of this fight happens now, if one does, is not the fight anybody was asking for in 2021. British boxing has a long history of domestic superfights that arrived late or not at all. This is the largest of them, and the only one where both parties had a signed contract, a date, a venue, and all four belts in place, and still could not get to a ring. The consolation, such as it is, would be that neither man is finished. But that was the consolation in 2022 as well.