Anthony Joshua Tells Blind Reporter Fury Fight Is in God’s Hands
Anthony Joshua would not pick a winner when a blind reporter asked him for a December 11 prediction against Tyson Fury. Standing with an arm around Michael O’Brien after the two heavyweights had finally come face to face, Joshua said the result is not his to call.
O’Brien introduced himself and told Joshua the meeting had been ten years in the making. “What does it feel like to finally look into his eyes and know that you’re gonna face him on December 11th?” he asked. Joshua did not treat the stare-down as proof of anything. “He’s a man with many tricks, Tyson Fury,” Joshua said. “So I gotta take every look, every breath, and every step with a pinch of salt.”
The fight is set for Friday, December 11, at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, with the stream on Netflix. Turki Alalshikh confirmed the date on September 24 after months of argument over whether the bout belonged in Britain or at Madison Square Garden. Cardiff Council has said the main event will start in the early hours of Saturday to suit a U.S. television window. Ring Magazine’s Mike Coppinger reported that the vacant WBA “super” heavyweight title, given up by Oleksandr Usyk, is scheduled to be on the line.
Fury is 36-2-1 and has won twice since back-to-back losses to Usyk, stopping Arslanbek Makhmudov and outpointing Mariusz Wach. Joshua is 30-4, with a knockout of Jake Paul and a second-round stoppage of Kristian Prenga on his current run. The London press conference on September 30 was their first formal face-off for the Cardiff date. Fury called Joshua a two-time heavyweight champion, an Olympic gold medalist, and a role model for British boxing.
O’Brien pressed him on the matchup itself. “And what is it that you feel you do better than Tyson Fury?” he asked. Joshua checked whether he really wanted the answer, then gave him two words. “Lift weights,” he said. He had already framed the night as something he would have to endure rather than control. “It’s gonna be challenging, but I’m praying that God give me the strength to get through,” Joshua said.
The last question was not about Fury. O’Brien, who described himself as a blind person trying to build a career in the industry, asked Joshua for a message to people who think they may never reach what they want. “You are what you believe you are,” Joshua said. “If you believe that you’re not a dream catcher, and your dreams are going to be forever running away from you, that’s what’s going to happen.”
He turned the point back on the interview they were already having. “But if you believe, are you a dream catcher?” Joshua asked. O’Brien said he was. Joshua asked what he had wanted, then answered it himself.
“In your mind, you said, I need to get an interview with AJ,” he said. O’Brien told him he had left his house at 2 a.m. to get it. “And look at what we’re doing now,” Joshua said. “It weren’t penciled in, was it? And it weren’t scheduled. But we managed to make it happen.”
O’Brien still wanted a pick for December 11. Joshua would not give him one. “Only God knows that,” he said, then closed the conversation with “God bless you, bro.”
The two men are due in the ring in Cardiff in a little more than two months, with a British stadium, a Netflix audience, and a decade of missed dates behind them. Joshua left the prediction where he left the face-off, outside his own hands.
