RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 4 sourcesNo, Anthony Joshua ’s win over Kristian Prenga was not fixed. But his fight with Tyson Fury might be broken beyond repair.
When Joshua cascaded to the canvas inside 20 seconds on Saturday, there was a brief feeling that his super-fight with Fury was collapsing him with. But barely five minutes later, Joshua was laughing off this scare as Prenga’s head snapped against the bottom ropes, leaving the helpless heavyweight to fade back into boxing obscurity as his consciousness faded, too.
Suggestions that the outcome was fixed (and there are a strange number of them) should not be entertained for a second. Every measurement of pain and damage in those chaotic few minutes were real. That should not need explaining.
Anthony Joshua (left) and Tyson Fury in their fights on the last weekend of July (Getty)
Yet the narrative of the fight flipped almost as quickly as the narrative around Joshua vs Fury, which was being touted 24 hours earlier as a bout that was destined to go “AJ”’s way – such was the lacklustre nature of Fury’s win over Mariusz Wach. Fury was victorious after seven rounds in Thailand ( although the fight was broadcast nowhere ), but a 46-year-old Wach was no litmus test for the abilities of the “Gypsy King”.
Just as he did against Arslanbek Makhmudov in April, Fury looked comfortable but nothing more. Still, in fairness, comfortable is better than what Joshua experienced in Saudi Arabia.
So the relevant pages will read “Fury def. Wach via seventh-round TKO (3:00); Joshua def. Prenga via second-round KO (2:43)” – a removal of the final hurdles between the British heavyweights. However, the issue is that Fury and Joshua are certainly not speeding down the track to a November showdown at Wembley.
The 2am GMT ring walks proposed by Saudi matchmaker Turki Alalshikh were already farcical, but now there is talk that Joshua’s contract dictates a showdown on British soil . In contrast, Fury’s contract allows for a meeting in the US.
Furthermore, there must be conversations behind closed doors about whether Joshua is in the right state mentally to return to the ring in November.
In other words, two hurdles were dismantled at the weekend (laboriously, rather than being battered down), but two more might have arisen.
Do not be surprised if Joshua vs Fury is delayed until 2027. Do not be surprised if more warm-up fights are suggested. Do not be surprised if we never see the big one, even if those involved with the contracts might bristle at that suggestion.
Joshua climbs off the canvas after one of two first-round knockdowns (Getty)
Do not forget: Joshua vs Fury has been signed before, and it still fell through.
Against Prenga, Joshua was already making a remarkably quick comeback after surviving a car crash in December, a tragic accident in Nigeria that killed two of his teammates. For all of Joshua’s admirable determination, for all of the soul searching, for all of the time spent training with his old rival Oleksandr Usyk in Ukraine , the blunt truth is that he was dropped by the first meaningful shot Prenga threw.
Whether Joshua’s mind or chin is not right, either is cause for concern against Fury. Then again, the weekend’s fights led one boxer to tell The Independent : Joshua vs Fury could be a case of “chin is gone” versus “legs are gone”.
There was already a consensus that Fury vs Joshua, should it take place in November, would be occurring several years too late. But at various points in the last few years, this writer would have told you that each boxer might have diminished to a similar degree, and not to an excessive one, making the match-up an alluring prospect still. Of course it would have been best to see them clash at the heights of their powers, but all you really needed was to believe that both had a realistic chance of winning – and the odds have shifted time and again over the years.
But now, Joshua vs Fury really might come down to who has declined more severely, to the point that it is no longer an enticing proposition.
Fury eased past Mariusz Wach, one day before Joshua beat Kristian Prenga (Getty)
It’s not unusual for heavyweights to box into their 40s, but some of the all-time greats have looked closer to their primes at that age than Joshua and Fury do at 36 and 37.
So, it’s not just that the former champions aren’t speeding down the track to their long-awaited fight, as mentioned above; either man might run out of road before it arrives.
Each time a step towards Joshua vs Fury is taken, the fight inches further out of reach, like some sort of Sisyphean punishment. The fight, as a concept rather than an actual sporting contest, has become an endless, hellish loop. I can’t be the only one who wants out.
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