Fury, Joshua and the heavyweight greats they echo
Every generation of heavyweights is measured against the ones that came before it, and Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua are no exception. Look closely at either man and you find traces of champions from decades ago. Anyone weighing up the Fury vs Joshua odds is looking at two fighters whose strengths, and some of whose setbacks, have been seen before.
Fury and Muhammad Ali
The comparison Fury has invited most often is with Muhammad Ali. Both were unusually quick on their feet for heavyweights, and both used movement and timing to make heavier punchers look clumsy. Both talked endlessly before fights, partly to entertain and partly to get inside an opponent’s head.
Their careers follow a similar shape too. Ali, then still Cassius Clay, went in as the underdog against Sonny Liston in 1964 and took the title from a champion many thought unbeatable. Fury did the same against Wladimir Klitschko in Dusseldorf in 2015. Both then spent years away from the ring. Ali’s exile lasted three and a half years after he refused the military draft, while Fury’s two and a half years out came from his struggles with depression and addiction.
Fury and George Foreman
If Ali explains Fury’s style, George Foreman explains his comebacks. Foreman retired in 1977, returned a decade later, and in 1994 knocked out Michael Moorer in the 10th round to become world champion again at 45.
Fury’s return in 2018 was not as long in the making, but it was just as unlikely. He had put on a huge amount of weight and been out of the sport for more than two years, yet within six months he was fighting Deontay Wilder for the WBC title. He has retired and come back several times since, and as with Foreman, very few people now treat a Fury retirement as final.
Joshua and Lennox Lewis
Joshua’s closest historical match is Lennox Lewis. Both won Olympic super-heavyweight gold, Lewis for Canada in Seoul in 1988 and Joshua for Great Britain in London in 2012. Both are tall, upright boxers who build their work around a long jab and a heavy right hand.
Both have also lost their belts in shock defeats and won them straight back. Lewis was knocked out by Hasim Rahman in South Africa in April 2001 and knocked him out in the rematch seven months later. Joshua was stopped by Andy Ruiz Jr in New York in 2019 and outpointed him six months later in Saudi Arabia. Lewis went on to retire as champion, the standard Joshua’s career is often measured against.
Joshua and Frank Bruno
Joshua’s popularity has more in common with Frank Bruno. Both have muscular physiques that look carved rather than built, and both became public favourites well beyond boxing. Bruno lost three world title fights before he finally beat Oliver McCall at Wembley in 1995 to take the WBC belt, and the country celebrated with him.
Joshua has drawn some of the biggest crowds in British boxing history, including about 90,000 for his win over Klitschko at Wembley in 2017. The affection for both men has survived defeats, which is rarer than it sounds.
A British rivalry with roots in Cardiff
Fury against Joshua also echoes an earlier all-British meeting. In October 1993, Lewis defended his WBC title against Bruno at Cardiff Arms Park, in a fight billed as the first world heavyweight title bout between two British boxers. Bruno started well before Lewis stopped him in the seventh round. The Principality Stadium, where Fury and Joshua are set to meet, stands on the same site.
What history suggests
The past does not decide a fight, but it gives some clues. Ali-style movement and Foreman-style durability have beaten big punchers before, and Lewis-style power and patience have beaten awkward opponents. For those looking at the boxing odds for the fight, the old comparisons are a useful way to think through how the styles might meet.
What the comparisons cannot settle is which tradition wins out this time. That belongs to Fury and Joshua alone, and whatever happens will become one more chapter in the long history of British heavyweights.
Betting is for over-18s only.
