Tyson Backs Fury Over Joshua as All-British Clash Nears

Mike Tyson has already made his pick for a Tyson Fury–Anthony Joshua fight that hasn't even been signed yet — and it's not a close call for him. Speaking to Ring Magazine, the former undisputed champ said he'll always side with Fury, largely because the pair share a first name. Fury, the #3-ranked heavyweight at 36-2-1 (25 KO), just cleared his warm-up hurdle by stopping 46-year-old Mariusz Wach in seven rounds in Thailand.

Joshua's tune-up was a lot messier. The 36-year-old, now 29-4 (26 KO), got dropped by a right uppercut inside the opening 20 seconds against Kristian Prenga in Jeddah, then hit the deck again before the first round was out. He recovered to floor Prenga in the second and force the stoppage, but for a man who was a heavy favorite to blow through a no-hoper, those two knockdowns are the kind of thing that lingers.

Two Wins, Two Very Different Stories

The contrast between the weekend's cards is doing a lot of work here. Fury got seven rounds of low-risk sparring against a veteran who's spent his career playing spoiler, while Joshua's chin was tested in the first minute against a man given no realistic shot. Both got the win. Only one of them left new questions on the table.

Tyson's verdict came with a caveat that's easy to miss in the sentiment. He noted that if Fury comes in sharp and avoids the return fire, the fight gets interesting — and he was quick to flag that Joshua is a fast puncher. That's a reasonable read on paper: Joshua's 26 knockouts across 33 wins point to a man who can end things early when he lands clean.

There's context on Fury's side too. Before the Wach result, he'd been out for 16 months, snapping the layoff in April with a unanimous-decision win over Arslanbek Makhmudov. Two fights back inside a few months suggests a man rebuilding rhythm rather than one coasting, though neither opponent tells you much about how he'd hold up against elite opposition.

The upshot: the machinery is grinding toward an all-British heavyweight showdown later this year, with an official announcement expected before long. Both men did their jobs this weekend. Whether Joshua's wobbles against Prenga are a blip or a warning is the question that'll define the build-up — and no amount of shared first names will settle it.