Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury are projected to earn approximately $100 million (£75m–£100m+) each for their single, long-awaited heavyweight showdown.

This fight is considered the biggest in British boxing history, likely to be staged in the Middle East with a 50-50 purse split for the first fight.

The fight will hold in the fourth quarter of 2026 with the announcement coming from Saudi power broker Turki Alalshikh on Monday afternoon.

After several false starts, most notably in 2021 when the two men both signed a two-fight deal only to have the plan scuppered in a courtroom by Deontay Wilder, there are no longer any barriers.

You would be hard pressed to argue this fight is not happening five years too late – back then both Fury (35-2-1) and Joshua (29-4) were at the peak of their powers and both held world heavyweight titles. Then it would have been an absolute undisputed humdinger for all the marbles.

Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury are projected to earn approximately $100 million (£75m–£100m+) each for their single, long-awaited heavyweight showdown.

This fight is considered the biggest in British boxing history, likely to be staged in the Middle East with a 50-50 purse split for the first fight.

The fight will hold in the fourth quarter of 2026 with the announcement coming from Saudi power broker Turki Alalshikh on Monday afternoon.

After several false starts, most notably in 2021 when the two men both signed a two-fight deal only to have the plan scuppered in a courtroom by Deontay Wilder, there are no longer any barriers.

You would be hard pressed to argue this fight is not happening five years too late – back then both Fury (35-2-1) and Joshua (29-4) were at the peak of their powers and both held world heavyweight titles. Then it would have been an absolute undisputed humdinger for all the marbles.

“The Gypsy King” has earned an absolute fortune and the right to spend a happy retirement on the Isle of Man with wife Paris and their seven children. There was only one bout, which had enough meat to tempt him back to the table – that long-awaited Joshua showdown.

For AJ too this is the perfect retirement plan, it comes hot on the heels of his £50million payday for knocking out YouTuber Jake Paul.

Joshua of course has had other issues to deal with in recent months – notably the tragic car crash, which claimed the lives of two of his closest friends and team members in Nigeria in December. AJ would escape relatively unharmed from a physical perspective, but who can know the mental scars which may remain.

AJ will himself have a warmup fight ahead of his meeting with Fury, and his team have taken no chances with the choice of opponent. He will face little-known Albanian Kristian Prenga (20-1) in Riyadh on July 25.

Make no mistake, Joshua vs Prenga is not intended to be a stiff test for AJ, it is a tune-up with little risk, this is no time to fumble that enormous bag.

Fury is a slight 4/7 favourite with AJ a 7/5 underdog as that massive showdown looms later this year and it is a fight laced with danger for both men.

Joshua was a defensive disaster waiting to happen when he was blasted out of Wembley Stadium by Daniel Dubois in his last major heavyweight outing in September 2024. Fury has lost two of his last three fights against the Ukrainian master Oleksandr Usyk.

Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua finally have a real target window. The long-delayed British heavyweight fight is reportedly set for late 2026, but Joshua first has to get through Kristian Prenga, on July 25, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

According to Ring Magazine, Joshua will face Prenga at an event billed as “The Comeback,” before moving toward Fury in the fourth quarter of the year. Saudi boxing figure Turki Alalshikh, also pushed the bigger news on X, writing, “To my friends in Great Britain, it’s happening. It’s signed.”

Joshua enters the Prenga fight at 29-4. He is an Olympic gold medalist for Great Britain and a former two-time unified heavyweight champion, but the last few years have been rough terrain. He lost to Daniel Dubois in September 2024, knocked out former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou earlier that year, and beat Otto Wallin in 2023.

Prenga is not the name fans were waiting for, but the risk is obvious enough. The Albanian heavyweight is 17-1 and has won 13 straight fights by knockout or TKO. Joshua should be the clear A-side, but heavyweight boxing has a cruel sense of humour when someone looks too far ahead.

Fury brings his own messy road into this. He beat Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 to become unified heavyweight champion, later built his defining trilogy with Deontay Wilder, then lost twice to Oleksandr Usyk in 2024. After another retirement turn, Fury came back on April 11 and beat Arslanbek Makhmudov by wide decision in London.

That is why this fight still matters even after years of delays. Fury and Joshua were the two biggest British heavyweight stars of their era, yet belts, losses, rematches, retirements, and boxing politics kept pushing them apart. Now the door is open again, but Joshua cannot trip over Prenga on the way in.

If AJ wins in July, Fury vs. Joshua becomes the late-2026 monster fight boxing has been teasing forever. If he loses, the whole thing goes back into the heavyweight swamp, and nobody needs another chapter of that nonsense.

David Price suspects one fighter has regressed more than the other as Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua inch closer towards their long-awaited showdown.

While an official announcement is yet to emerge, the pair are nonetheless expected to lock horns in November, as per the terms of Joshua’s proposed two-fight contract.

This deal was offered by Turki Alalshikh ahead of Fury’s comeback fight, which saw ‘The Gypsy King’ unanimously outpoint Arslanbek Makhmudov earlier this month.

For Joshua, though, it appears there are still several I’s to dot and T’s to cross before he agrees to enter a comeback fight of his own.

Following the tragic car crash that took the lives of his two close friends in December, ‘AJ’ has not fought since engineering a sixth-round finish against Jake Paul that same month.

As a result, the 36-year-old is due to enter a warm-up fight in July, by which time he is expected to have fully healed from the physical injuries he sustained in Nigeria.

According to Olympic bronze medallist Price, however, there is a chance that Joshua has not completely recovered from his fifth-round stoppage defeat to Daniel Dubois in September 2024.

Speaking with Pro Boxing Fans, Price explained that this could put the Londoner in a vulnerable position against Fury, whose last elite-level contest saw him lose a unanimous decision to Oleksandr Usyk in December 2024.

Anthony Joshua is in search for a July opponent in order to best prepare him for a proposed showdown with Tyson Fury in November.

Fury returned to the heavyweight scene after a 16-month layoff, outboxing Russian powerhouse Arslanbek Makhmudov in a decision win at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to score a first victory since 2023.

In the aftermath, ‘The Gypsy King’ piled pressure onto ‘AJ’, demanding that he signs to fight him next, hoping to disrupt Joshua’s plans for an outing against an alternate foe this summer.

However, the Watford-born operator refused to dance to Fury’s tune and seems poised to stick to his original plan – fight in a ‘warm-up’ in three months’ time before a long-awaited meeting with ‘The Gypsy King’ towards the end of 2026.

As a result, there are a host of heavyweights hoping to secure a lucrative affair with Joshua, whose only fight since a devastating 2024 defeat to Daniel Dubois came against YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul last December.

In the aftermath, ‘The Gypsy King’ piled pressure onto ‘AJ’, demanding that he signs to fight him next, hoping to disrupt Joshua’s plans for an outing against an alternate foe this summer.

However, the Watford-born operator refused to dance to Fury’s tune and seems poised to stick to his original plan – fight in a ‘warm-up’ in three months’ time before a long-awaited meeting with ‘The Gypsy King’ towards the end of 2026.

As a result, there are a host of heavyweights hoping to secure a lucrative affair with Joshua, whose only fight since a devastating 2024 defeat to Daniel Dubois came against YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul last December.