There was a time when Joshua vs Fury felt like the biggest fight British boxing could possibly make.
Years later, I’m bored of writing about it.
That is slightly inconvenient when you are a boxing journalist — and I use the word journalist loosely — trying to keep across the entire sport.
Every few months, Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury comes back around. Another negotiation. Another proposed date. Another venue. Another broadcaster. Another development that apparently means this time it really is going to happen.
Now we are discussing Joshua vs Fury at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium in December, with reports suggesting the main event could take place somewhere around 1am or 2am to accommodate Netflix and viewers in the United States.
And apparently the retractable roof makes Cardiff an ideal solution for a stadium fight in December.
It certainly helps.
But there is one fairly obvious problem.
A roof is not a heater.
You can close the roof. You can keep the rain out. You cannot magically transform Cardiff in the middle of December into Las Vegas.
So after years of asking British boxing supporters to remain interested in an all-British heavyweight superfight, are we really going to bring it home and then ask tens of thousands of them to sit inside a freezing stadium until stupid o’clock because somebody thousands of miles away needs a more convenient television slot?
At some point, you have to ask who this event is actually for.
Joshua vs Fury Has Been Coming for Years
If you want some idea of how long the Joshua vs Fury saga has dragged on, you only have to look through CMBoxing.
I have already asked whether the fight has simply happened too late:
I have written about whether Saudi money was ultimately the only realistic way of getting Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury into the same ring:
I have asked whether Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury could still happen after yet another period when it appeared to be slipping away:
And, naturally, I have previously discussed the prospect of Joshua vs Fury at Wembley Stadium:
That is only a sample of the articles I have written about this bloody fight over the years.
If the fighters, promoters, broadcasters and everyone else involved had to put as much work into actually making Joshua vs Fury as boxing writers have put into writing about it, the whole thing would have been done and dusted years ago.
Instead, here we are again.
Cardiff Solves One Problem – Not December
There are perfectly sensible reasons for choosing the Principality Stadium.
It is a huge venue with genuine heavyweight boxing history. Anthony Joshua has already fought Carlos Takam and Joseph Parker there, and the retractable roof gives organisers something Wembley cannot offer in the middle of a British winter.
If it rains, close it.
Problem solved.
Except rain is not the only reason staging a stadium event in December might be uncomfortable.
It is going to be cold.
The Principality Stadium is still a stadium. Closing a roof does not turn the place into a centrally heated arena.
Now imagine sitting there for an entire boxing card.
You arrive in the evening. You find your seat. The undercard begins. Hours pass.
10pm.
11pm.
Midnight.
1am.
And potentially still no Anthony Joshua or Tyson Fury.
By that point, supporters could have been sitting inside the stadium for six or seven hours, in the middle of December, waiting for the fight they actually paid hundreds of pounds to watch.
The roof might stop them getting soaked.
It will not necessarily stop them freezing.
That distinction seems rather important.
Imagine Actually Being One of the Paying Supporters
This is where discussions about broadcast windows sometimes lose sight of reality.
It is easy to look at Joshua vs Fury on a television schedule and decide that 2am works.
It is considerably different when you are actually attending.
A supporter might have travelled several hours to Cardiff.
They may have paid hundreds of pounds for a ticket.
Then there is petrol, trains, coaches, food and drink.
Hotel prices around a major stadium event are hardly likely to be cheap either.
Then, after spending all that money, they are potentially expected to sit through an entire undercard until the early hours of a freezing December morning before the main event even starts.
If Joshua vs Fury goes the distance, you could be approaching 3am before people begin leaving.
Then tens of thousands of supporters pour into Cardiff city centre.
What public transport is available?
How many people can actually find taxis?
How many are walking back to hotels?
How many have travelled from Birmingham, London, Manchester, Scotland or elsewhere around Britain?
Those are not insignificant details.
They are part of attending the event.
And these people are not extras Netflix has hired to create atmosphere for a television programme.
They are paying customers.
British Boxing Has Done This Before
There is historical precedent for all of this.
British boxing has staged major fights at ridiculous hours before because American television wanted them at ridiculous hours.
Joe Calzaghe’s victory over Mikkel Kessler at the same stadium in 2007 is an obvious example of a huge Welsh boxing event extending deep into the night.
So nobody can pretend the concept is new.
But “boxing has done it before” is not much of an argument for doing it again.
Especially because the media landscape has changed dramatically.
We are no longer talking exclusively about traditional American television networks needing a rigid prime-time slot.
Netflix is a global streaming platform.
That word matters.
Global.
So why does appealing to a global audience still apparently translate into making life easier for American viewers?
Someone, somewhere, is always going to get an inconvenient start time when you broadcast a live sporting event around the world.
That is unavoidable.
But surely the people who have bought tickets and physically travelled to the stadium deserve rather more consideration than someone deciding whether to stay awake and watch from their sofa.
Joshua Wanted the Fight in Britain
There is another contradiction which makes the situation even stranger.
Anthony Joshua reportedly had the opportunity to make considerably more money if the Fury fight went to New York.
Madison Square Garden was discussed.
Joshua apparently did not want that.
His agreement specified Britain and, according to Eddie Hearn, Joshua remained committed to having the fight at home.
I respect that.
After years of discussions about Saudi Arabia and other possibilities, there is something right about Joshua vs Fury taking place in Britain.
These are two British heavyweights.
Their enormous profiles were built substantially through British boxing supporters.
Their rivalry has dominated British boxing conversation for years.
If this fight is finally going to happen, Britain feels like where it belongs.
But there is a difference which boxing seems increasingly willing to ignore.
Holding a fight in Britain and staging a fight for British supporters are not necessarily the same thing.
You can put the ring in Cardiff.
You can sell 70,000 or 75,000 tickets to British supporters.
You can fill the stadium with Union Jacks, Welsh flags and singing fans.
But if those supporters are expected to sit there freezing until 2am because the television schedule somewhere else matters more, how much does bringing the fight “home” really mean?
We Already Missed the Joshua vs Fury That Really Mattered
There is another uncomfortable reality surrounding all of this.
The Joshua vs Fury fight British boxing originally wanted is gone.
Years ago, this could have been for undisputed heavyweight supremacy.
Joshua held the WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight titles.
Fury held the WBC belt.
Both men were at or close to the peak of their careers.
It could have decided the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and potentially defined an era of British heavyweight boxing.
Instead, the negotiations collapsed and the moment disappeared.
Oleksandr Usyk eventually became undisputed champion and, rather inconveniently for the Joshua–Fury mythology, beat both men along the way.
That does not make Joshua vs Fury meaningless.
It remains enormous.
There is too much history, personality, rivalry and mainstream recognition for it to be anything else.
But it is no longer the fight it could have been.
It is now two ageing former heavyweight champions finally settling a rivalry British boxing has been discussing for what feels like forever.
That is still compelling.
But after making supporters wait years for a diminished version of the fight, perhaps boxing should not also make them wait until two in the bloody morning.
Boxing Has Asked These Fans to Wait Long Enough
That is probably what irritates me most about the whole idea.
British boxing supporters have already waited for Joshua vs Fury.
And waited.
And waited.
We have followed negotiations.
We have watched proposed fights collapse.
We have heard promoters blame each other.
We have discussed Saudi Arabia.
Wembley.
New York.
Cardiff.
We have listened to Joshua talk about Fury and Fury talk about Joshua.
People like me have written article after article trying to find something new to say about a fight which somehow remained permanently just over the horizon.
And now boxing might finally give British supporters the fight they have spent years waiting for.
Only there could be one final condition.
Bring a bloody warm coat.
Because after spending hundreds of pounds on tickets, travel, accommodation, food and drink, you might be sitting inside a Cardiff stadium in December until two in the morning waiting for the main event to begin.
All so somebody watching Netflix thousands of miles away can watch at a more convenient time.
When Did the Paying Crowd Become Part of the Television Set?
This goes beyond Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.
It is about the way major boxing events are increasingly constructed.
Of course broadcasters matter.
Netflix is not putting enormous money into Joshua vs Fury out of charity.
International audiences matter.
Commercial realities matter.
Promoters cannot simply pretend television does not exist when scheduling an event of this magnitude.
But there has to be a balance.
The people inside the stadium create the atmosphere broadcasters are selling.
They provide the noise.
They create the spectacle.
They fill every sweeping camera shot.
They make a major fight look like a major fight.
Without them, Netflix would be broadcasting two men fighting in an empty building.
Yet sometimes it feels as though the paying supporter has moved further and further down boxing’s list of priorities.
The crowd buys the tickets.
The crowd travels.
The crowd pays for hotels.
The crowd buys the overpriced food and drink.
The crowd sits through the undercard.
And now the crowd might be expected to sit inside a cold stadium until the middle of the night because somebody watching from another continent takes priority.
At what point did the paying crowd stop being the customer and become part of the television set?
After years of negotiations, false starts and endless speculation, Joshua vs Fury might finally happen.
I genuinely hope it does.
Mostly because I would quite like to stop writing about whether it will.
But if an all-British heavyweight superfight, between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury, taking place in a British stadium can’t be organised primarily around British boxing fans, what fight possibly could?
Would You Sit There Until 2am?
Would you pay to attend Joshua vs Fury in Cardiff if Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury were not expected into the ring until around 2am?
Would the occasion make it worthwhile, or is asking supporters to spend half the night sitting inside a stadium in December a step too far?
Let me know what you think in the comments and share this article with other boxing fans.
And if you enjoyed this piece, visit CMBoxing for more independent boxing opinion, analysis, history and discussion from across the sport.