Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua Offered Shot to Become Heavyweight Champions Again

Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua have both been offered an unlikely shot at becoming three-time heavyweight champions, as the details of their upcoming fights struggle to be finalized.

We have just seen both men have their prescribed warm-up fights before they enter the ring to decide who the best British heavyweight of this generation is in the fall.

Fury took on Mariusz Wach behind closed doors in Thailand, and what footage has emerged showed a below-par Fury, who, whilst his usual elusive and tricky self, was on the end of some heavy shots from the 48-year-old Wach. Those who were in attendance were underwhelmed as Fury forced Wach to retire after seven rounds.

Joshua, the very next day, took on a more challenging opponent in Albanian 'knockout artist' Kristian Prenga. Of the two warm-up fights, it must be said that Joshua's rang the alarm bells the loudest as he was dropped in the first 20 seconds and then again before the end of the first round - even with his new and improved team courtesy of Oleksandr Usyk.

AJ recovered to come back and get a sensational knockout in the very next round to end the fight, but it has certainly raised a lot of questions about whether he returned too early after losing two of his close friends.

Fury and Joshua offered one last chance at a world title

Open season has begun in the heavyweight division after Oleksandr Usyk vacated his WBA, IBF and WBC titles in June. The sanctioning bodies have been deciding what to do, and all the top 10 contenders have been vying for their shot at the newly released belts.

The current beneficiaries of this are Agit Kabayel, who was elevated from interim status to full WBC champion, and Murat Gassiev, who held the WBA 'Regular' title and is now their 'Super' champion.

Gassiev only recently defended his title for the first time against Peter Kadiru, winning via stoppage, and has quickly said he would happily fight Fury or Joshua away from home in England.

"They are two great fighters, great people, and good guys," he told The Mirror. "I have a lot of respect for both guys and if I could fight them in England, then I would say yes, because I have never been before.

"Tyson and Anthony are still great fighters, great champions, and are still at the top level. Either of these two guys is a very hard opponent for any fighter. Anthony showed in his last fight that with just one uppercut he went down. But he woke up, recovered, and won the fight; that is heavyweight boxing. They are both at a top level and for sure can still fight for world titles."

The Russian didn't specify the winner and that is likely because both fights would bring in a huge purse for him no matter what.

Joshua, out of the two, would be the most likely to accept this offer, as he has been clear since he came back to fight Daniel Dubois in 2024 that his goal was to join an exclusive club and become a three-time world heavyweight champion, and Usyk even said after the Prenga fight that he wanted to become undisputed.

Whether or not you believe this to be blind optimism after that last performance is up to you, but that won't stop Joshua from taking the first step towards that goal after fighting Fury.

The 'Gypsy King' seems to be at the opposite end of the spectrum, believing he has completed everything he has set out to achieve in boxing. He has held every title available, just never concurrently. He is out for big name and big money fights to end his career, and Gassiev, whilst an interesting proposition given the size gap, does not represent either of those things for Fury.

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