Tyson Fury Gives Anthony Joshua Fight Only One Percent Chance
Tyson Fury just put a number on a fight that was announced three days ago, and the number is almost zero.
Asked by IFL TV what chance his December 11 meeting with Anthony Joshua still has of happening in Cardiff, Fury did not hedge. “One percent,” he said.
The interviewer asked if that was really that low. Fury said yes.
The bout is still officially scheduled for Friday, December 11 at Principality Stadium, live on Netflix. Turki Alalshikh and The Ring confirmed the date and venue on September 24 after months of argument over whether the fight would land in the United Kingdom or New York.
Fury is already talking as if the paperwork is coming apart. “I already heard last night that they were trying for a replacement, all the big names like David Benavidez,” he said.
He did not treat that as a downgrade. “F***ing, what a fight that’d be. That would be an unbelievable.”
Then he drew a line between the two names. “But the only thing is, with David Benavidez, he’s about four to five times harder fight than Joshua,” Fury said. “I’ll take it, because that’s what I do.”
He went further. “There’s not a man on this earth that I won’t fight. Anybody. Not a singular person.”
The ranking of the two opponents was the part he wanted to lock in. “But never, ever, ever think that Joshua’s a tougher fight than David Benavidez,” Fury said. “Benavidez stops Joshua in about three rounds. But that’s a good fight.”
That is Fury’s view, not a booking. Benavidez is unbeaten and holds cruiserweight titles after stopping Gilberto Ramirez in May. He is separately linked to a December 12 date against Michal Cieslak, which would sit one night after the Cardiff card.
A short-notice jump to heavyweight against Fury would mean walking away from that path. Nobody from Benavidez’s camp has confirmed any such offer.
The sudden doubt around Joshua is tied to a promoter fight that broke into the open after the announcement. Eddie Hearn has objected to Dana White taking a visible role in an event announced as a collaboration between The Ring and White’s boxing operation.
Fury has blamed Joshua’s side for threatening to walk. Hearn has framed it as a contract issue, not a fighter who does not want the date.
The fight is supposed to be the biggest all-British heavyweight meeting in a generation. Neither man holds a major world title right now. The WBA has discussed putting its vacant super heavyweight belt on the line after Oleksandr Usyk moved on from that version of the championship.
Fury is 36-2-1 with 25 knockouts after stopping Mariusz Wach in the seventh round in Pattaya on July 24. That was his second win since coming out of retirement, following a decision over Arslanbek Makhmudov in April.
Joshua is 30-4 with 27 knockouts. He needed a second-round stoppage of Kristian Prenga on July 25 in Jeddah after going down twice in the first round.
Those tune-ups were meant to clear the runway for December. Instead the week after the official poster produced the same old noise: venue, promoters, and now a 1 percent forecast from one of the two men who are supposed to walk to the ring.
Fury’s own later comments on his Furocity channel cut against a full collapse. He has also said he thinks the fight will happen because the money has already been paid, unless Joshua’s side wants to give it back.
That is the gap the public is sitting in. The date is on the calendar. The stadium is booked. Netflix is listed as the broadcaster. And the Gypsy King just told a camera there is a 1 percent chance it actually happens on that night.
If Joshua stays in, December 11 is still the fight Britain has waited a decade to see. If he does not, Fury has already said he will take Benavidez and treat it as the harder night.
