Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury shouldn’t need another lesson from boxing’s recent past, but the same warning signs are already showing up again.
Eddie Hearn told reporters, including World Boxing News, that Anthony Joshua could fight in July and then attack Tyson Fury in November, rather than going straight to the type of immediate fight that many fans would prefer.
On the surface, the idea is understandable. Joshua hasn’t had much time in the ring since he went just a few rounds with Jake Paul in December, and what followed behind the ropes was unimaginable personal heartbreak when he lost two close friends in a car crash in Nigeria.
The comeback against Fury is quite simple to understand.
What’s harder to justify is why boxing drifts toward the same unnecessary risks whenever a major event is waiting to happen.
Joshua can take absolutely zero risks. He learned this the strenuous way in his match against Daniel Dubois, when he was one step away from another world title fight, and this reality should come up in every conversation.
If the plan is to keep the pot tight with one more run before Fury, your opponent needs to be as close to a guaranteed win as matchmaking can get.
Everything else begins to resemble the kind of thinking that has already ruined one blockbuster and helped turn another into a cautionary tale.
Boxing keeps finding up-to-date ways to ruin the easiest fights.
The history of the warm-up
WBN has covered this issue from every angle because it keeps coming back. When it came to Garcia vs. Haney 2 and Wilder vs. Joshua in the warm-up limbo, it was quite elementary: ready-made, great fights do not require additional obstacles to be placed in front of them.
Sport continues to act as if waiting times need to be extended, when in fact all it is doing is opening the door to disaster.
The same warning applied when the Fury-Joshua idea came up again, and the plan was rightly described as the unfathomable Groundhog Day of Reckoning.
Boxing had already experienced the consequences of this plan once and still seemed willing to undo it as if he had learned nothing.
The Day of Reckoning strategy was to secure a fight between Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder after both men had separate fights on the same card. Instead, Wilder lost to Joseph Parker, Joshua defeated Otto Wallin, and the fight everyone had been waiting for for years disappeared in one evening.
It wasn’t bad luck. This was a direct result of warming up for a sedate fight that should have taken place immediately.
Even when Wilder’s subsequent plans carried similar Day of Reckoning risks, the same conclusion remained obvious. An earlier fight is only legitimate if it is truly strategic, tightly controlled and built around preserving the main event rather than gambling.
If Hearn and Joshua’s entourage think he really needs one more performance ahead of Fury, then fine. At least there’s a reason for it, given his confined activities and everything else he’s been up to since December.
But if that’s the case, it can’t be sold as routine. It must be true.
Joshua doesn’t need a test. He doesn’t need a risky name to get off the ground, and he certainly doesn’t need a fight with enough intrigue to fail.
He needs what Deontay Wilder could never provide himself when Turki Alalshikh’s crazy plan for the Joshua vs. Wilder in 2023 required both men to go through danger before earning the mega-bucks.
The Wilder side of the equation turned out to be against Parker and the whole thing went south.
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Just do Fury
That’s why the alternative still seems the simplest and smartest of all: let Tyson Fury be the test.
Fury is now thirty-seven years elderly and did not look his best in his last match against Arslanbek Makhmudov. If Joshua wants the right challenge, one with the most reward and the least wasted movement, Fury is staring him in the face.
There is another obvious issue that should not be ignored. Whatever happens in the first Joshua-Fury fight, a rematch is all but guaranteed, meaning Joshua will remain vigorous either way.
This alone makes the case for a separate warm-up even thinner.
And herein lies the frustration of anyone who has watched boxing repeat this cycle over the years.
Fans aren’t asking you to build an impossible fight from scratch. They are asking for one of the easiest major events in sports to organize. Joshua vs. Fury has history, rivalry, commercial value, British relevance and global curiosity.
This is not a fight that needs to be wrapped in cotton wool. It doesn’t require marinating with more side roads and extra calculations.
You have to sign it.
If Joshua really needs a confidence builder, make him the safest one imaginable and move on. But if there is any appetite to turn this interim fight into something more threatening, boxing is once again creating exactly the kind of nightmare that has already cost the sport too much.
There can’t be another breakdown where a routine training session turns into a disaster, the plan falls apart in front of everyone, and the fans are once again dissatisfied for reasons that were obvious from the beginning.
Boxing has seen this story too many times. There’s no need to pretend that the ending is still a secret.
About the author Phil Jay is the editor-in-chief of World Boxing News (WBN) and a boxing veteran with over 15 years of experience. Read the full biography.
Hall of Fame trainer Buddy McGirt believes Diego Pacheco has only scratched the surface of his potential, saying the unbeaten super middleweight possesses “untouched talent” as he prepares for Saturday night’s fight against veteran Immanuwel Aleem on DAZN.
McGirt, who recently joined Pacheco’s team, said the 25-year-old reminds him of former two-division world champion Vernon Forrest because of how naturally certain skills come to him.
“Honestly, he has untouched talent,” McGirt said to the Boxing Mob. “He knows he’s good, but he doesn’t realize how good he is and could be.
“He does things sometimes that remind me of Vernon Forrest. When I say, ‘Okay, do that again,’ Vernon used to look at me like, ‘What the hell did I just do?’ He’s kind of the same way. I say, ‘Do that move again,’ and he’s like, ‘What did I just do?’ It’s just so natural. The key now is to sharpen it up and improve each fight.”
Pacheco (25-0, 18 KOs) will face Aleem at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, in what will be McGirt’s first fight working his corner. Although Aleem is viewed as a step below the elite contenders at 168 pounds, McGirt isn’t taking the assignment lightly.
“At this stage of the game, anybody’s a high risk,” McGirt said. “The key is just to prepare for any and everything and be ready for whatever he brings to the table.”
Saturday’s fight comes at an important point in Pacheco’s career. While he remained unbeaten with a decision over Kevin Lele Sadjo in his last outing, the performance drew criticism after he spent long stretches holding to neutralize Sadjo’s pressure. Instead of strengthening his standing among the division’s top contenders, the fight raised questions about whether he is ready for the elite names at super middleweight.
McGirt clearly believes those doubts overlook Pacheco’s natural ability. Now the challenge is turning that talent into the type of complete performance that restores confidence in his long-term championship potential.
A convincing win over Aleem would mark a strong start to the McGirt-Pacheco partnership. Another laborious performance would likely keep the spotlight on the questions that surfaced after the Sadjo fight.
Robert Segal is a boxing journalist at Boxing News 24 with more than a decade of experience covering fight news, previews, and analysis. Known for his straightforward reporting and ringside perspective, he delivers authoritative coverage of champions, contenders, and emerging talent worldwide.
Hall of Fame trainer Buddy McGirt believes Diego Pacheco has only scratched the surface of his potential, saying the unbeaten super middleweight possesses “untouched talent” as he prepares for Saturday night’s fight against veteran Immanuwel Aleem on DAZN.
McGirt, who recently joined Pacheco’s team, said the 25-year-old reminds him of former two-division world champion Vernon Forrest because of how naturally certain skills come to him.
“Honestly, he has untouched talent,” McGirt said to the Boxing Mob. “He knows he’s good, but he doesn’t realize how good he is and could be.
“He does things sometimes that remind me of Vernon Forrest. When I say, ‘Okay, do that again,’ Vernon used to look at me like, ‘What the hell did I just do?’ He’s kind of the same way. I say, ‘Do that move again,’ and he’s like, ‘What did I just do?’ It’s just so natural. The key now is to sharpen it up and improve each fight.”
Pacheco (25-0, 18 KOs) will face Aleem at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, in what will be McGirt’s first fight working his corner. Although Aleem is viewed as a step below the elite contenders at 168 pounds, McGirt isn’t taking the assignment lightly.
“At this stage of the game, anybody’s a high risk,” McGirt said. “The key is just to prepare for any and everything and be ready for whatever he brings to the table.”
Saturday’s fight comes at an important point in Pacheco’s career. While he remained unbeaten with a decision over Kevin Lele Sadjo in his last outing, the performance drew criticism after he spent long stretches holding to neutralize Sadjo’s pressure. Instead of strengthening his standing among the division’s top contenders, the fight raised questions about whether he is ready for the elite names at super middleweight.
McGirt clearly believes those doubts overlook Pacheco’s natural ability. Now the challenge is turning that talent into the type of complete performance that restores confidence in his long-term championship potential.
A convincing win over Aleem would mark a strong start to the McGirt-Pacheco partnership. Another laborious performance would likely keep the spotlight on the questions that surfaced after the Sadjo fight.
Robert Segal is a boxing journalist at Boxing News 24 with more than a decade of experience covering fight news, previews, and analysis. Known for his straightforward reporting and ringside perspective, he delivers authoritative coverage of champions, contenders, and emerging talent worldwide.
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Last Updated on 2026/07/13 at 8:06 PM
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Shakur Stevenson has been linked to a showdown with Gervonta Davis throughout his career but now the Newark southpaw has predicted how his rival would fare against one of the greats of the sport in Oscar De La Hoya.
Stevenson and Davis each held world titles in the lightweight division as recently as February, but Stevenson was then stripped of his WBC crown due to unpaid sanctioning fees and ‘Tank’ was recently demoted to the WBA’s ‘champion-in-recess’ because of prolonged inactivity.
Any hope of seeing the fight is now beginning to dwindle, with Stevenson having signed with Zuffa Boxingwhilst Davis is expected to remain sidelined until early 2027, meaning if the pair are to ever fight, it is unlikely to be anytime soon.
Despite that, Stevenson still clearly holds his rival in high regard, as when discussing hypothetical encounters in an interview with Daily Mail Sporthe picked the Baltimore-born knockout artist to trump a prime De La Hoya, who is one of just two fighters in boxing history to have ruled in six divisions.
De La Hoya fought as a lightweight for just over a year-and-a-half and is better known for his reign as welterweight champion, where he overcame the likes of Pernell Whittaker, Héctor Camacho and Julio César Chávez.
Although, whilst Stevenson also picked Davis to overcome stars such as Vasyl Lomachenko and ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley, he felt as though a meeting with pound-for-pound sensation Terence Crawford would prove to be a step too far for the undefeated three-division conqueror.
