Tyson Fury Moves On From Anthony Joshua and Calls for Oleksandr Usyk Trilogy
GOATIFYTyson Fury’s long-awaited showdown with Anthony Joshua has hit another serious obstacle, and Fury is already talking as if he is ready to move on. With a disagreement over the venue threatening a fight British boxing has discussed for more than a decade, Fury says he is looking for a new opponent for November — and he has turned his attention back to the man who has already beaten him twice, Oleksandr Usyk.
The situation has reshuffled the heavyweight picture almost overnight. Fury and Joshua had finally reached the stage where both had signed individual agreements for the fight, backed by major Saudi financing, but the location has become a sticking point. Joshua’s side has maintained that its agreement points to a United Kingdom event, while Fury’s arrangement apparently does not contain the same restriction. A United States venue, with Madison Square Garden among the possibilities, has therefore entered the conversation.
For Fury, the uncertainty has become enough to publicly explore another route. The most provocative alternative is a third meeting with Usyk, who holds two wins over Fury and has little obvious competitive need to revisit the rivalry. That makes Fury’s challenge compelling, but it also raises a bigger question: is the trilogy genuinely the next major heavyweight event, or is it leverage while the Joshua negotiations remain unresolved?
The Fury-Joshua fight has reached another breaking point
Fury versus Joshua has spent years as boxing’s great unfinished piece of business. At different points both men held heavyweight titles, both were among the division’s biggest commercial attractions, and both had fan bases convinced that an all-British super-fight would eventually become unavoidable. Instead, timing repeatedly worked against it.
Joshua’s first defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr. disrupted an earlier window, and Fury’s contractual obligations produced a third Deontay Wilder fight when another path seemed possible. Later, losses, rematches, mandatory obligations and promotional politics kept changing the landscape. By 2026, however, the matchup finally appeared to have moved beyond the fantasy stage. Individual contracts were signed and the financial framework was in place.
The remaining disagreement is unusually important because venue is not a cosmetic detail for a fight of this size. A United Kingdom stadium event would lean heavily into the domestic rivalry and years of British boxing history. A New York event would offer a different commercial pitch, placing two globally known heavyweights in one of the sport’s most famous arenas. The problem is that Joshua’s side says the UK location is part of what it agreed to, while Fury’s side does not appear bound by the same language.
Joshua has largely stayed out of the public argument. Fury, in contrast, has made the dispute part of his public campaign, accusing Joshua of avoiding the fight and repeatedly attacking him online. Joshua’s most recent performance has added fuel to Fury’s rhetoric: he was dropped twice in the opening round of his comeback against Kristian Prenga before recovering to stop Prenga in the second.
That comeback still gave Joshua a victory and kept the Fury matchup alive, but it did not remove the negotiating problem. If neither side compromises on location, a fight that finally seemed contracted could again slip away without either man losing in the ring.
Fury’s November pivot puts Oleksandr Usyk back in the frame
Fury’s response has been to name Usyk as the opponent he wants if Joshua is not available. He says he is now searching for a November fight and has publicly challenged the Ukrainian to make their rivalry a trilogy.
The appeal from Fury’s perspective is obvious. Usyk is the only opponent who has defeated him, and he has done it twice. Their first meeting in 2024 was extremely competitive, with Usyk winning a split decision and becoming undisputed heavyweight champion. The rematch produced a clearer result, with Usyk taking a unanimous decision and reinforcing his claim as the superior fighter across their two bouts.
A third fight would therefore offer Fury something the Joshua fight cannot: a chance to rewrite the defining sporting result of his career. Beating Joshua would carry enormous commercial and cultural weight, but beating Usyk would allow Fury to answer the two defeats that currently sit at the center of his late-career legacy.
There is also an immediate practical reason to raise Usyk’s name. Fury wants to fight again in November. If the Joshua negotiation becomes bogged down in venue arguments, he needs another opponent capable of supporting a major event on a short runway. Few names in boxing can match Usyk for legitimacy or attention.
The problem is that the incentive is much stronger for Fury than it is for Usyk. Fury needs the opportunity to reverse the rivalry. Usyk does not need to prove that he can beat Fury. He has already done it over 24 rounds, under two different sets of circumstances and with two official victories.
Usyk has less to gain from a trilogy than Fury does
Usyk’s career since the Fury rivalry has only strengthened his negotiating position. After beating Fury twice, he defeated Daniel Dubois to become a two-time undisputed heavyweight champion. He then added a high-profile victory over kickboxing star Rico Verhoeven in May.
At the end of June, Usyk vacated his heavyweight titles while signaling that he wanted the final phase of his career to be about the fights he personally values rather than the demands of sanctioning bodies. That has helped produce speculation about Deontay Wilder, one of the few major heavyweight champions of the era Usyk has not faced.
From that perspective, a Wilder fight offers Usyk a different kind of legacy box to tick. Fury does not. A third Fury bout would be lucrative and easy to market, but it would ask Usyk to risk a clean 2-0 record against a rival without giving him a new name on his résumé. Even if the purse is exceptional, the competitive upside is limited.
That does not make the trilogy impossible. Heavyweight boxing routinely turns on money, timing and availability, and Usyk has not announced his next opponent. If Fury’s November date is real and the economics are strong enough, there is a route to the fight. But Usyk can afford to wait. Fury is the one making the public pitch.
That imbalance matters. Fury can frame a third fight as unfinished business because the first contest was close and because he still believes he can solve Usyk. Usyk can frame the same rivalry as completed business because the official record already gives him both wins. Any trilogy negotiation starts from that difference in motivation.
The heavyweight market now revolves around who actually says yes
The most important development may be that three of the division’s biggest names are now connected to one another without a confirmed next fight. Fury still has a commercially massive Joshua option if the venue issue can be solved. Joshua has every reason to keep that fight alive because it remains one of the largest events available to him. Usyk, meanwhile, has enough leverage to choose between a Fury trilogy, a possible Wilder fight or another lucrative opponent.
That creates a negotiation triangle in which every public move can influence the other two. Fury calling out Usyk increases pressure on the Joshua talks by showing that he is willing to walk toward another mega-fight. At the same time, the Joshua matchup still has a unique selling point that a third Usyk fight cannot replicate: it would finally answer a question British boxing has argued about for more than a decade.
For fans, the frustration is familiar. Fury-Joshua has looked close before. This time the difference is that the fight progressed unusually far, with contracts and financing already in place. That makes a collapse over location feel even more avoidable, but it also means the underlying business may still be strong enough to rescue the event.
If it cannot be rescued, Fury will need more than a social-media challenge to land Usyk. He will need a package that gives the Ukrainian a reason to revisit a matchup he has already won twice. That could mean a huge purse, a particularly attractive venue or timing that fits Usyk’s final-career plans.
The next move therefore belongs to multiple camps at once. Joshua’s side can compromise on location or hold firm to the terms it believes it signed. Usyk can entertain Fury’s challenge or continue looking elsewhere. Fury can keep the November date open while trying to create competition between alternatives.
What has changed is the sense of certainty. Fury-Joshua had finally moved from hypothetical dream fight to something that looked scheduled and real. Now Fury is openly discussing life without it, and the heavyweight division is once again waiting to see which blockbuster can survive the negotiations long enough to reach the ring.
