Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua is now so close you can smell it, almost touch it, but there is still a risk it could all fall apart once again.
Five years ago, Deontay Wilder stopped this all-British blockbuster happening way back in 2021, when he won an arbitration ruling to force a third fight against Fury. Now he could do it again, but this time in the ring and not a courtroom.
As the negotiations continue for Fury vs Joshua, and AJ contemplates a ‘warmup fight’, there is one assignment he absolutely cannot and should not accept. Another long-awaited showdown, this time against Wilder.
READ MORE: Latest heavyweight rankings: The top 10 after Fury vs Makhmudov
Boxing legend says Wilder turned down an enormous offer from DAZN to meet Joshua for all of the heavyweight marbles a few years ago, and a meeting of these two huge punchers would still be box office. But for Joshua, it is now all wrong, the downside is far greater than the up.
This is not the Joshua of old
To fully understand why Joshua must avoid Wilder like the plague, one must look at recent history and look outside of the hype that beats a constant drum for Fury vs Joshua.
AJ (now 29-4), wonderful ambassador for the sport that he is, is now 36 years old and clearly on the downside of a career which should one day find him enshrined in the Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota. But he is no longer the invincible, destructive force who once struck fear into the heavyweight division.
The last 18 months have seen Joshua deal with traumatic events inside and outside the ring. In September 2024 he failed in his bid to become a three-time world heavyweight champion when he was destroyed by Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium. It was as one-sided a demolition as you could wish to see, with AJ hitting the canvas in four of the five rounds.
Just as he had in that shocking first pro defeat vs Andy Ruiz in 2019, Joshua was unable to deal with adversity when the chips were truly down in a championship fight. Where Fury rose from the dead in his first meeting with Wilder, and recovered from the verge of disaster against Usyk, AJ was unable to regroup.
That is the prism through which we must view Joshua the fighter now – not the freak show in Miami last December which saw him knock out YouTuber Jake Paul. That is a night which has to be disregarded totally when analysing any heavyweight question.
Since that night in Miami, Joshua has been forced to deal with even greater trauma outside of the ropes, being injured and losing two of his closest team members in a tragic car crash in Nigeria. We can have no idea just how much that has impacted Joshua, and he deserves the right to decide who he faces next, if he boxes at all. Just please not Wilder.
Why Wilder would be an awful choice
‘The Bronze Bomber’ (45-4-1) is 40 years old now but boxing history tells us that the last thing to go for any fighter, is the punch. And boy can Wilder punch.
The man from Tuscaloosa, Alabama ruled the heavyweight division by beating up on average fighters, and generally destroying them with one punch – that huge trademark right hand.
| Date | Opponent | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-04-04 | Dereck Chisora | Win (SD 12) |
| 2024-06-01 | Zhilei Zhang | Loss (TKO 5) |
| 2023-12-23 | Joseph Parker | Loss (UD 12) |
| 2022-10-15 | Robert Helenius | Win (KO 1) |
| 2021-10-09 | Tyson Fury | Loss (KO 11) |
| 2020-02-22 | Tyson Fury | Loss (TKO 7) |
| 2019-11-23 | Luis Ortiz | Win (KO 7) |
| 2019-05-18 | Dominic Breazeale | Win (KO 1) |
| 2018-12-01 | Tyson Fury | Draw (12) |
| 2018-03-03 | Luis Ortiz | Win (TKO 10) |
| 2017-11-04 | Bermane Stiverne | Win (KO 1) |
| 2017-02-25 | Gerald Washington | Win (TKO 5) |
| 2016-07-16 | Chris Arreola | Win (RTD 8) |
| 2016-01-16 | Artur Szpilka | Win (KO 9) |
| 2015-09-26 | Johann Duhaupas | Win (TKO 11) |
| 2015-06-13 | Éric Molina | Win (KO 9) |
| 2015-01-17 | Bermane Stiverne | Win (UD 12) |
| 2014-08-16 | Jason Gavern | Win (RTD 4) |
| 2014-03-15 | Malik Scott | Win (KO 1) |
| 2013-10-26 | Nicolai Firtha | Win (KO 4) |
| 2013-08-09 | Siarhei Liakhovich | Win (KO 1) |
| 2013-04-27 | Audley Harrison | Win (TKO 1) |
| 2013-01-19 | Matthew Greer | Win (TKO 2) |
| 2012-12-15 | Kelvin Price | Win (KO 3) |
| 2012-09-08 | Damon McCreary | Win (KO 2) |
| 2012-08-04 | Kertson Manswell | Win (TKO 1) |
| 2012-06-23 | Owen Beck | Win (RTD 3) |
| 2012-05-26 | Jesse Oltmanns | Win (TKO 1) |
| 2012-02-25 | Marlon Hayes | Win (TKO 4) |
| 2011-11-26 | David Long | Win (KO 1) |
| 2011-11-05 | Daniel Cota | Win (KO 3) |
| 2011-08-27 | Dominique Alexander | Win (TKO 2) |
| 2011-06-18 | Damon Reed | Win (KO 2) |
| 2011-05-06 | Reggie Pena | Win (TKO 1) |
| 2011-02-19 | DeAndrey Abron | Win (TKO 2) |
| 2010-12-02 | Danny Sheehan | Win (KO 1) |
| 2010-10-15 | Harold Sconiers | Win (TKO 4) |
| 2010-09-25 | Shannon Caudle | Win (KO 1) |
| 2010-07-03 | Dustin Nichols | Win (TKO 1) |
| 2010-04-30 | Alvaro Morales | Win (TKO 3) |
| 2010-04-02 | Ty Cobb | Win (KO 1) |
| 2009-11-28 | Jerry Vaughn | Win (KO 1) |
| 2009-08-14 | Travis Allen | Win (TKO 1) |
| 2009-06-26 | Kelsey Arnold | Win (KO 1) |
| 2009-05-23 | Charles Brown | Win (KO 1) |
| 2009-04-24 | Joseph Rabotte | Win (KO 1) |
| 2009-03-14 | Richard Greene Jr. | Win (TKO 2) |
| 2009-03-06 | Shannon Gray | Win (TKO 1) |
| 2008-11-15 | Ethan Cox | Win (TKO 2) |
We would back pretty much any top 15 fighter to beat Wilder by decision – he has an incredibly limited skillset when it comes to technical ability. But we’d also give him a chance of knocking out every single one of them. He possesses one big equaliser.
For Joshua, a showdown with an unpredictable opponent who retains a massive punch would be a very wrong move in our opinion, risking not only that Fury showdown but the rest of AJ’s career.
Wilder also proved in his recent win over Dereck Chisora that he retains the chin and heart which also make him a formidable foe on the right night. Remember he fought life and death with Fury in two of their epic trilogy of fights. He could not outbox ‘The Gypsy King’ – not even close – but he came very close to outfighting him.
Wilder had Fury on the floor twice in their first meeting in 2018, and twice more in their trilogy fight in 2021. Some 43 of his 45 victories have come by knockout, most of them sealed with one brutal punch.
Deontay also claims he is healthy again following a long layoff which included surgery and healing a major shoulder problem. Make no mistake, even accounting for his lack of pure boxing ability, he is a danger. The biggest of all to Joshua.
What should Joshua do next?
So the first thing Joshua should do when mapping out the next year of his life is to rule out in any way shape or form a fight against Wilder. There are only two options open to the Watford man.
First, he goes straight into that fight against Fury – no chance of fumbling the bag, straight to the goldmine – one which will reportedly pay him £100million for a night’s work.
Second, he takes an easy warmup fight, not a real assignment. Somebody who is durable but not a major punching threat. He gets some rounds in the bank, and moves on then to the real thing.
Joshua, like Fury and the rest of us, have waited way too long for this fight already. Wilder already scuppered it once. Do not give him the chance to do it again.
