Fury v Joshua set for 11 December at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium
An all-British heavyweight fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua has been scheduled for 11 December at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. The bout was announced after both fighters completed warm-up contests in July.
Fury, 37, stopped 46-year-old Mariusz Wach in seven rounds in Pattaya, Thailand in a fight attended by about 1,500 spectators and not broadcast on television. Joshua, 36, was knocked down twice in the first round — the first after just 20 seconds — before stopping little-known Albanian Kristian Prenga in the second round in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. That was Joshua's first fight since surviving the car crash in Nigeria that claimed the lives of his close friends Sina Ghami and Latif 'Latz' Ayodele. After the Jeddah victory, Joshua and promoter Eddie Hearn reiterated their preference for staging the fight at Wembley Stadium, and Joshua's agreement with the Saudi organisers financing the event stipulated the contest would take place in Britain and would have had to be renegotiated for a move to the United States.
Eddie Hearn spoke about the contest after Pat Brown's win over John Hedges on 19 September, saying Joshua's "whole career comes down to this" fight with Fury. Hearn added: "There is a desperation to win this fight and this is why sport is the greatest. I've never wanted to win a fight so badly." Those remarks followed months of speculation over venue and timing.
Until recent weeks, Cardiff had barely been in the conversation and a date at Madison Square Garden was so close that plans were being made for a news conference to announce the fight. The negotiations produced repeated deadlines, expletive-laden social media posts from Fury and conflicting accounts of when and where the bout would take place. Fury even called out Oleksandr Usyk for a trilogy just days ago.
The pathway to this announcement included several collapsed plans: in 2020 the two sides agreed the basics of a two-fight deal; in 2021 contracts were signed for an undisputed fight only for Deontay Wilder's successful arbitration case to send Fury into a third fight with the American; and in 2022 Joshua accepted a 60-40 offer to challenge Fury before that attempt also collapsed. Hearn repeatedly insisted the fight should take place in Britain and the reported financial terms around the UK location were cited as a factor in the eventual venue decision.
Dana White had been cryptic about his involvement during the build-up, and Fury thanked the UFC boss for helping get it over the line. Hearn maintained his position in negotiations and ultimately secured the venue he wanted for the fight.
The fight will take place at Cardiff's Principality Stadium on 11 December and is expected to draw tens of thousands of supporters to the venue, offering British fans the opportunity to attend what the promoter has called one of the biggest domestic sporting occasions in recent years and giving younger spectators the chance to see two of Britain's best-known heavyweights share a ring.