Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury: Fighters Decide Their Fate
Robert McCracken has seen enough of boxing to know when the noise around a fight drowns out the only voices that really matter.
On Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury, he is crystal clear: this is their call, and nobody else’s.
“It’s up to the fighters if they want to fight each other and try and get the better of each other,” Joshua’s long-time former trainer told Sky Sports. “I don’t think it’s anybody else’s business whether they should fight or not – I think they both proved themselves.”
That stance cuts through a week of claims and counter-claims. Frank Warren insists terms are agreed and says they are “waiting for AJ”. Eddie Hearn says talks have reopened and Wembley Stadium is back in play. Social media is boiling. Promoters are talking. Fans are demanding.
McCracken isn’t biting.
He has walked this road with Joshua before, from Olympic gold to unified world titles, and he knows the weight that comes with every decision at the top of the heavyweight division. You don’t just sign for a fight of this magnitude; you live with it.
“I had a career as a fighter and you look back at what you maybe wished you should have done and what you shouldn’t have done,” he said. “I think it works out how it should work out most of the time.”
The message is simple: let the fighters choose their own battles.
Fury’s barbs, Joshua’s response
While the negotiations drag on, Tyson Fury has chosen the loudspeaker. The WBC champion launched another social media tirade, branding Joshua a “coward” as the talks stalled yet again.
McCracken, who saw Joshua up close in the most pressurised nights of his career, rejects any suggestion that the former unified champion would shy away from the challenge.
“With Anthony Joshua, in my experiences, he was happy to fight anybody,” McCracken said. “It was just about how it was packaged and what was best for him – that’s how the fighters look at things these days.”
He is no longer part of Joshua’s inner circle, but even from a distance he senses a collision is edging closer.
“I’ve not been involved for a long time with Joshua, but it looks like it’s going to happen. Hopefully it will and then obviously everyone can enjoy it.”
That “everyone” is telling. For all his insistence that the decision rests with the fighters, McCracken knows what this bout represents. Joshua vs Fury is the fight that has stalked British boxing for the best part of a decade, the one that refused to materialise while titles changed hands and careers twisted.
“One thing I’d say is everyone’s talking about it – it puts boxing on the map and it’s great for boxing,” he said. “While boxing’s in the forefront and in the news, I think it’s a really positive thing.”
Form, flaws and a fascinating balance
The recent evidence in the ring nudges the odds in one direction. Fury brushed aside Mariusz Wach in a one-sided stoppage, a tune-up that barely asked a question of him. Joshua’s summer was far more turbulent.
Dropped twice by Kristian Prenga, Joshua had to fight his way off the canvas before finding the stoppage. The win came, but the doubts came with it.
McCracken sees danger in writing Joshua off on the back of a messy night.
“Joshua is coming off the back of not a great performance, but obviously he got the knockout and that is all that really matters,” he said. “He’ll be looking to prove people wrong, any of the doubters.”
Right now, McCracken accepts the obvious narrative: Fury is the favourite.
“Tyson would be the favourite at the moment with his recent results and his form. It’s quite fascinating if you actually think about it, where it’s got to and the time it’s taken to actually get the fight on.”
The fascination lies in the timing as much as the styles. Fury, unbeaten and brimming with confidence, against a Joshua who has been hurt, criticised, rebuilt, and still refuses to disappear. One man trying to cement his era, the other trying to reclaim his place in it.
If it lands at Wembley, under lights, with all the belts and all the history between them, British boxing will finally get the night it has been arguing about for years.
‘A Night of Solidarity’ – boxing with a different kind of stakes
McCracken’s week is not just about super-fights and stadium deals. He spoke to Sky Sports ahead of ‘A Night of Solidarity’ on November 13, an Olympic-style evening of boxing with a very different purpose.
The event will honour the resilience of the North Kensington community in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, and raise funds for firefighters’ charities, youth sport organisations and local community groups.
When Grenfell burned, local boxing and sports clubs did not wait for instructions. They opened their doors. They created safe spaces for young people. They helped families rebuild their routines and their confidence. They stood in the gap.
The London Fire Brigade Boxing Club has been at the heart of that work, using boxing gyms across the capital to give structure and purpose to young people’s lives, putting them side by side with rank-and-file firefighters in a show of solidarity and support.
‘A Night of Solidarity’ brings those strands together. It will celebrate the role of the LFB Boxing Club and the clubs closest to the Grenfell community, and channel the sport’s energy into something beyond titles and rankings.
Across 12 bouts, an LFB Select team will face a North Kensington side made up of men, women and youth boxers from clubs across the local area and wider London. Every punch thrown will help raise money for local sports charities and the Firefighters’ Charity.
On one stage, the sport wrestles with the politics and pressure of delivering Joshua vs Fury. On another, it shows why boxing still matters when the cameras move on.
The heavyweights can argue over contracts and legacies. In North Kensington, the fight is about something else entirely.
