If there was anything to typify Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury’s long-winding rivalry, it was this. A quintessential scene of ‘will they, won’t they’ anticipation-turned-frustration.April 11, 2026. And yet it felt like the clock had been turned back five or six years as fatiguing hopes of an all-British showdown for the ages were fuelled and fizzled in the space of just hours, minutes even. Here we were again.
For a moment, it looked like the time had finally come. Boxing power-broker Turki Alalshikh – whose word tends to ring true these days – promised a “big surprise” while speaking at Tottenham ahead of Fury’s comprehensive comeback victory over the powerful but severely-limited Arslanbek Makhmudov.
Joshua had been sat front row all night, appearing to film the majority of Fury’s contest on his phone amid expectations he would join his counterpart in the ring for said “big surprise” after the final bell. Nope.Upon being announced as winner, Fury grabbed the microphone before bellowing a Gladiator-esque battle challenge in the direction of a steely-faced Joshua, seemingly the only man still seated at ringside, slouched in his chair and unamused by the show. Were he to play along, a Roman Empire-style thumb gesture might have been a fitting reply in this writer’s taste for fiction. For now, fiction is what it all remains.
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Highlights of Tyson Fury vs Arslanbek Makhmudov. Video courtesy of Netflix and The Ring. Tyson Fury v Arslanbek Makhmudov is now available to watch globally only on Netflix
Between them Fury and Alalshikh had tried and failed to convince both Joshua and Eddie Hearn to enter the ring; they would not abide.
They have been here before. We have been here before. And evidently neither wanted part of further theatre surrounding a fight still clearly yet to be agreed. Far from it.
Joshua dubbed Fury a ‘clout-chaser’, refusing to dance to the tune of the Gypsy King and instead insisting he remained the ‘boss’, the ‘landlord’ and the caller of shots – a sentiment I maybe ought to take into the next one-to-one meeting I have with my line manager.Fury demanded a ‘yes or no’. Joshua declined to give either. And so an all-too-familiar stand-off resumed between two fighters who…
2026-04-13 07:00:00
