Finally, Joshua-Fury is announced

By Norm Frauenheim

A fight a decade past its prime was announced Thursday with one word.

Finally.

Truth is, that’s almost redundant. Anthony Joshua-Tyson Fury was a fight wanted by so many for so long and then a fight forgotten by even more, buried by Oleksandr Usyk, who beat both twice in a way that seemed to knock out any reason anyone would ever think about it again. 

But feuds never go away. They just get inherited, from one generation to the next. There’s an old Irish joke. To wit: What is Irish Alzheimer’s? You forget everything but the grudge. The grudge will be there, loud and lively, when the 38-year-old Fury and Joshua, 37 in October, fight at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales Dec. 11, according to an announcement from Saudi Prince and promoter Turki Alalshikh.

“Two of the best heavyweights in history, finally in the ring together,’’ Alalshikh, also The Ring owner, said. “This will be one of the biggest fights in history. I am happy to make this fight happen for the fans.’’

In the end, where it will rank among history’s biggest fights will be determined by what happens in the ring. It’s safe to say it will be big — very big — at the box office and in the size of the Netflix’s audience. 

But big in terms of how it’s remembered? Put it this way: This fight has a chance to be remembered the way Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao was in 2015. That, too, was greeted with huge anticipation when announced. Yet, it was a disappointment in the end. That’s what happens when long-awaited fights wait too long. They spoil like over-ripe fruit. 

For now, Fury is a narrow, minus-200 favorite. Meanwhile, the odds are pretty good that this fight will continue to generate controversy in the eleven-plus weeks before opening bell. Already, there are questions about uniform drug testing. Expect more issues. Contentious negotiations, a stew of insults and hostility, set the table

For a while, it looked as if the fight wouldn’t happen. Rival promoters, Joshua’s Eddie Hearn on one side and Dana White on the other, said they disliked each other and then said everything they could to prove it. The issue: Location, location, location.

White, Alalshikh, Netflix and especially Fury wanted to fight at New York’s Madison’s Square Garden. Money was their only guide. Fury said he’d fight on Mars, although it’s not clear whether A Red Planet Savings & Loan is located there. The working date was November 20.

Then, there was the UK. First, it was Wembley Stadium, but an agreement couldn’t be reached because of a curfew that Netflix feared would eliminate much of the U.S. audience. From the beginning, the fight always looked as if belonged in the UK. After all, where else would two of the best UK heavyweights fight each other? The UK was written into Joshua’s contract. But the Fury side wanted a rewrite. Drop the demand and fight in New York. But Joshua would not move. For him, it looked more like a righteous stand than than the pursuit of, more moneymoney,

Joshua-Fury anywhere other than the UK just seemed wrong. An All-British fight doesn’t belong in New York any more than the World Series belongs in Tokyo. In the end, Joshua’s argument was made persuasively and stubbornly by Hearn. 

It’s often said that every fight starts at the bargaining table. If true, Joshua won that round , just the beginning to a story and a fight still a long way from Finally.