Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua are officially booked. Turki Alalshikh made the announcement on X Wednesday, setting the fight for Dec. 11 at Principality Stadium in Cardiff with the card streaming live globally and exclusively on Netflix. “BOXING’S BIGGEST NIGHT IS SET,” he wrote, tagging The Ring Magazine.
The co-main event pits former heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder against Jai Opetaia. Below that, Alalshikh listed Da’Mazion Vanhouter vs. Michael Essomba and Martin Bakole vs. Solomon Adebayo, with more fights still to come. Damon Martin pointed out on X that the main card is all heavyweights, top to bottom. Somewhere a cruiserweight scale is feeling very lonely.
The Dana White wrinkle
Opetaia is the Zuffa Boxing cruiserweight champion, and Dana White announced last week that his guy is moving up a division to take on Wilder. That booking drops White squarely into a card that Eddie Hearn has insisted White has nothing to do with. According to MMA Fighting, White has countered that he has a hand in both promoting and producing the Dec. 11 event. The two have spent the buildup trading shots in interviews, and this past weekend in London White told All Out Fighting that Hearn could pick a gym there if he actually wants to fight. So whoever gets the credit, White will be in Cardiff in some capacity, and his champion is the one taking the biggest physical risk on the card.
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Where Fury and Joshua come in
The two names at the top share a common opponent. Both fought Francis Ngannou in boxing matches after he left the UFC, and Ngannou, now 40, has since gone back to MMA and stretched his win streak in that sport to eight with knockouts in the PFL and at the first MVP MMA event in May.
Joshua’s most recent outing was last December, when he knocked out Jake Paul in the sixth round. Paul came out of it with a broken jaw, two titanium plates and some teeth removed. Paul doesn’t fight again until Dec. 24 in Dubai against Cedric Doumbe, and he has said he will retire if he loses. Which means Joshua’s last opponent returns to the ring 13 days after Joshua does.
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Quick take
I’ve been burned by this fight before, figuratively, since every year somebody swore it was done and every year I tore up a ticket that only existed in my head. A venue, a date, a streaming partner and a full card from the man writing the checks is about as real as it gets. The bet I care about is in the co-main, though. Opetaia is a sitting champion jumping a full weight class to fight a former heavyweight titleholder, and a setup like that tends to produce a juicy price on the smaller man. Live underdogs are my weakness, and I’ll take a hard look once the books post a number. Until then, the only line I trust is the date: Friday, Dec. 11, Cardiff.
