Lennox Lewis Weighs In on Whether Fury-Joshua Deserves a World Title

Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua will finally share a ring on December 11 at Cardiff's Principality Stadium, and reports now suggest the all-British grudge match will carry the WBA 'super' heavyweight title. Lennox Lewis, a former undisputed champion himself, says that even if neither man has earned it on recent form, they'd be fools to turn down a belt that's being offered to them.

Speaking to Playbook Boxing, Lewis argued the logic was simple: if a title is on the table, you take it. He added that he does believe the pair deserve the shot — though he was quick to flag the obvious complication waiting for whoever wins. The combined ledger here is enormous: Fury carries a 36-2-1 (25 KO) record and sits at #3 in the division, while Joshua is 29-4 (26 KO) after flattening Jake Paul inside six rounds.

The Belt Nobody Quite Owns

The WBA 'super' strap only came loose because Oleksandr Usyk vacated all three of his titles following his 11th-round stoppage of Rico Verhoeven. That left Murat Gassiev, previously the 'regular' titlist, as the lone WBA champion at heavyweight — a status many treated as full championship recognition. The Russian is 34-2 (27 KO) and backed it up in July with a sixth-round knockout of Peter Kadiru.

So the Fury-Joshua reports put Gassiev in an awkward spot. His championship claim is being quietly elbowed aside for a far bigger money fight between two men coming off tune-ups against limited opposition. Fury's last outing was a seventh-round retirement win over Mariusz Wach — hardly the résumé line of a man storming back to the top of the division.

Paper Champion Problem

That's the question Lewis couldn't dodge. Asked whether the Cardiff winner would actually defend the belt like a real champion, he said he hoped so — because nobody wants to be a paper titlist. It's a pointed observation given how the WBA situation already looks like a belt handed out to generate headlines rather than earned in the ring.

To his credit, Joshua has tried to get ahead of it. The 36-year-old has said that if he beats Fury, he wants to face Gassiev next and settle the argument over who the legitimate WBA man really is. Whether that fight actually materialises is another matter — but at least one half of the Cardiff main event is already talking about cleaning up the mess the sanctioning bodies created.