Forget Fury: Anthony Joshua should fight Deontay Wilder next

The next fight for Anthony Joshua should be Deontay Wilder not Tyson Fury.

I know, I know – I can practically hear the curse words. The biggest fight in British boxing history is finally in reach and this clown wants to delay it some more? Hey, I’ve waited a decade for Joshua-Fury – I can wait another six months. It won’t ever be undisputed again but Joshua knocking out Wilder in a stadium this summer would crank the hype machine into overdrive.

There are several reasons why Team Joshua would be wise to line up the Bronze Bomber before riding to the court of the Gypsy King. Eddie Hearn is many things but he’s not an idiot. Joshua vs Wilder makes sense: not only from a financial perspective but also a sporting one.

Let’s cover the sporting part first. It’s nearly two years since Joshua had a proper fight, getting stopped in five rounds by Daniel Dubois. (No, Jake Paul doesn’t count.) He recently survived a car crash that tragically killed two of his closest friends. It would be borderline irresponsible to send him straight into the blockbuster fight that will define his legacy without seeing where his mind and body are at.

It’s simple logic: you can fight Wilder and then Fury, but not Fury and then Wilder

Wilder is the perfect candidate for such an inquisition. His fabled knockout power is clearly diminished, there was never much technique to begin with, but he’ll meet the opening bell with a sole purpose – knocking AJ spark out. Reciprocate the favour and Joshua will have scored one of the most significant victories of his career, one that will provide infinitely better preparation than chasing a club-level fighter around the ring last Christmas. You don’t prepare for a lion by fighting a turkey; you prepare by fighting another lion.

Shun the idea the American is some kind of consolation prize: Joshua vs Wilder will sell out Wembley many times over. A meeting between their 2018 incarnations remains the great lost fight of this generation: two charismatic, telegenetic KO artists, both undefeated, Britain vs America, ice vs fire, the face vs the heel. It would’ve been a truly global event and I still don’t think people truly appreciate what the sport lost when Andy Ruiz shocked Joshua in Madison Square Garden – but that’s a discussion for another day.

The point is, Joshua won’t be fighting some journeyman for a tuneup. It would be the second-biggest fight available to him, the other name missing from his resume. Once the two men face-off in the press conference and Deontay starts going all “bomb squad!”, I doubt many boxing fans will be feeling shortchanged.

It’s simple logic: you can fight Wilder and then Fury, but not Fury and then Wilder. Wilder is 40, three years older than Fury and on a far more visible decline. It is extremely unlikely he will be a viable opponent a year from now. Moreover, from a narrative standpoint, Fury has always been the final boss for Joshua. Once that rivalry is settled, there’s nowhere left to go. (Even if the American avoids defeat, Joshua vs Wilder post-Fury would generate far less interest than a fight with the spectre of Fury looming over it.)

As a commercial draw, Joshua operates in a different stratosphere to Fury and always has done

Obviously Fury will rant and rave about being avoided, “he don’t want the smoke!” yada yada. He’ll threaten to retire. He probably will retire, so much as it means anything. But he’ll be there ringside. Because despite Fury the boxer making a successful return on Saturday night, Fury the box office draw took one hell of a pasting. Whatever the plan for the big comeback, it probably didn’t involve tickets being flogged for less than a KFC bucket.

Fury has sabotaged the Joshua fight in the past – remember that 2022 callout and subsequent impossible deadlines when Joshua accepted? (But hey, at least we got the Derek Chisora trilogy.) Why is his team (and Netflix) now trying to bully Joshua into an immediate announcement? Sign now, work out the details later. Because Joshua has Wilder. If that goes ahead, Fury must either wait or take on a more dangerous opponent than Arslanbek Makhmudov. I've offer you some very punchy odds on the latter.     

Joshua and Fury have been yoked together their entire careers. They are the two most famous British boxers of their generation, by orders of magnitude. But that doesn’t make them equals. As a commercial draw, Joshua operates in a different stratosphere to Fury and always has done, ever since he won the gold medal at London 2012. Who’s the one staring down from the billboards? Who does your mum describe as “that nice young man”? Whose fights does your partner take an active interest in? To paraphrase Jay-Z: Fury is a businessman. Joshua's a business. 

This isn’t to disparage Fury, an undoubted star, albeit not quite as big as star in 2026 as his team seemed to believe. But Joshua is a phenomenon. He’s had twice the number of stadium fights as his rival, shifted millions more PPVs. It’s an unprovable hypothesis but I have zero doubt that Joshua would’ve sold out Tottenham Hotspur Stadium vs Makhmudov, weeks ago. He probably sells out Wembley. His comeback will generate a tidal wave of support and goodwill that extends far beyond the boxing community. Regardless of the opponent, Joshua’s next ringwalk will be one of the sporting moments of the year.

Make that opponent Wilder. Of course there’s a risk of the American landing that big punch and detonating Joshua-Fury once and for all. Indeed AJ has made something of a habit of losing at the least opportune moment – most notably against Oleksandr Usyk when Fury would surely have been next. But whatever, we’d still get Joshua-Wilder, and while I know styles make fights, it’s hard to envisage a Joshua who loses to a 40-year-old Wilder having a prayer against Fury. And he really shouldn’t be losing to a 40-year-old Wilder.

Here’s what I envisage: Joshua and Wilder meet in a sold-out summer showdown at Wembley Stadium. The buildup is feisty, the action frenetic and AJ stops his rival in five before a rapturous crowd. Fury clambers into the ring and this time there is a faceoff. 

It's been a hell of a wait. Let's wait a little longer, and ensure we arrive in style.