Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury are set to face off in a long-awaited all-British heavyweight clash at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on December 11.
According to a BBC Sport report on Thursday, the fight will unite two of Britain’s biggest heavyweight stars, following both men’s successful warm-up bouts in July.
Fury, 37, stopped 46-year-old Mariusz Wach in the seventh round in Pattaya, Thailand, in a bout held in front of roughly 1,500 spectators and not televised.
Joshua, 36, went through a dramatic fight in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, battling back from two first-round knockdowns to stop Albanian heavyweight Kristian Prenga in the second round.
The first knockdown occurred just 20 seconds into the fight, but Joshua rallied to claim the win.
The fight was Joshua’s first since he survived a car crash in Nigeria that took the lives of his close friends Sina Ghami and Latif “Latz” Ayodele.
Following his victory, Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn had voiced a preference for the bout to be staged at Wembley Stadium.
Yet Joshua’s deal with the Saudi organizers funding the event mandated that the contest be held in Britain, and a switch to the United States would have required renegotiating the agreement.
Hearn has called the Fury fight hugely important to Joshua’s career.
Speaking after Pat Brown’s win over John Hedges on September 19, Hearn said Joshua’s “whole career comes down to this” fight.
“There is a desperation to win this fight, and this is why sport is the greatest. I’ve never wanted to win a fight so badly,” Hearn said.
The December showdown will at last see the two British heavyweights share the ring, after years of negotiations and speculation about a potential meeting.
