Anthony Joshua’s win over Jake Paul on Friday night did nothing to convince the bookmakers that he would beat Tyson Fury.
AJ (29-4) won the controversial fight with the YouTuber-turned-boxer via sixth round stoppage in Miami, leaving Paul with a jaw broken in two places.
It was a brutal end to the evening for the underdog, but after a turgid few rounds to begin the bout, which saw Paul doing his best not to engage and Joshua not looking in any rush to make him.
The referee stepped in to tell the fighters in no uncertain terms that they must actually fight, which eventually led to Paul’s entirely predictable demise.
Joshua is now turning his attention back to genuine competition, with promoter Eddie Hearn suggesting he fights in February and then takes on Fury later in the year.
Fury (34-2-1) has not fought in a year, with his last outing being his second defeat to Oleksandr Usyk in Riyadh last December.
The Gypsy King has not won a fight since a narrow and contentious points victory over Francis Ngannou in October 2023.
If the two British heavyweight greats do finally meet in 2026 then the bookmakers have a clear favourite ahead of the bout.
Betfred make Fury the 1/2 favourite, with Joshua lagging behind in the odds at 13/8.
After beating Paul, Joshua quickly called out Fury, saying: ‘If Tyson is as serious as he thinks he is, if he wants to put down his Twitter fingers and put on some gloves, and come and fight in the ring, take a challenge, step in the ring with me next if you’re a real bad boy, don’t give all that talking, AJ this, AJ that, let’s see you in the ring and talk with your fists.’
Hearn was asked about Joshua potentially fighting heavyweight kickboxing legend Rico Verhoeven in February, which he suggested is a possibility, before boxing Fury later in 2026.
‘We’ve been talking about a possible fight with Turki Alalshikh. Couple of opponents mentioned,’ Hearn told a press conference on Friday night.
‘The biggest challenge now is it’s eight weeks tonight. He had a very tough camp, eight or nine weeks with a new team who gave him a good working over. So we will sit down with that team and talk about when he will be ready to return.
‘In an ideal world, that would be the time. But we’re going to see when he’s ready. Rico, or whoever it is, we haven’t finalised that yet. But the date is what we’re going to work on over the next four, five, six days.
‘We’re not going to rush him back if he’s not quite ready, but it won’t be long. The plan is to fight in the spring and then obviously fight Tyson Fury.’
Joshua was asked if he would rather forego a tune-up bout and go straight into a fight with the Gypsy King, replying: ‘Yeah. I would. I would.’
Hearn was open to this move, saying: ‘We can do that, by the way, straight away. No interim fights. If Tyson’s ready and AJ’s ready, we don’t have to fight in February or March.’
The former heavyweight champion then unleashed his best Fury impression, saying: ‘I’ll give the dosser eight weeks. 24 hours to sign a contract. Let’s see if he’s a man!’