Tyson Fury Confirms Anthony Joshua Fight at Madison Square Garden in New York

Tyson Fury confirmed his long-awaited heavyweight showdown with Anthony Joshua will take place at Madison Square Garden in New York, ending months of uncertainty over the venue even though no date was attached to his Instagram post.

“will take place at Madison Square Garden in New York”

Punch Newspapers

Fury’s post came with a poster of himself and Joshua set against the New York City skyline, and he wrote, “What a place NYC, and what a venue MSG, and what a fight Fury vs AJ, the land of opportunity,” while the report noted that neither Joshua nor Matchroom Boxing had confirmed the development as of the time of writing.

Image: Al Jazeera

The fight is expected to hold in November, with November 20 understood to be the target date after both fighters signed contracts with Turki Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority.

Eddie Hearn said Joshua’s team remained opposed to staging the fight outside the United Kingdom but understood it had to work for all parties involved, adding, “We don’t want to do the fight in the US, but we also understand it has to work for everybody,” as he pointed to tax concerns tied to moving the bout to America.

The venue dispute traces back to Joshua’s original terms requiring the fight to take place in the United Kingdom, while organisers Netflix and Alalshikh pushed for a Stateside clash and plans for a Fury-Joshua fight first collapsed in 2021 after a United States judge ruled Fury had to face Deontay Wilder in a trilogy bout instead.

As talks continued, Fury escalated pressure on Joshua by saying he had agreed to fight in every location discussed and placing “zero stipulations” on where the bout should take place.

In a video update circulated by DAZN Boxing on Wednesday, Fury challenged Joshua directly, saying, “The facts are I feel like you’re being a coward. I feel like you don’t want the fight and you’re just conning everybody,” and he added, “I’ve been down to fight every location that has been mentioned — England, Ireland, Vegas, New York, back to England, back to Ireland, back to New York.”

Image: BBC

Sky Sports reported that Fury took to Instagram again on Wednesday to question the hold up, quoting him as saying, “Joshua, where are you? Still no deal done. It’s getting quite tiring,” while noting that the location remained a defining talking point.

Promoter Frank Warren told Sky Sports News that the ball was in Joshua’s court, insisting, “Tyson has signed up for the fight and agreed to the fight,” and he said he was uncertain about the location because it would be decided by “the people who are putting up the money and the promoters and the TV company putting up the money.”

The dispute has been framed around Saudi organisers and financier Turki Alalshikh working with Netflix to push for a United States venue, while Joshua’s camp has preferred a British venue with Wembley Stadium viewed as the preferred choice.

While Fury’s venue confirmation and the ongoing venue debate have kept the fight’s public details in flux, the sources also tie the next steps to contractual revisions and deadlines set by Eddie Hearn.

“But they’ve got to decide this week.”

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Hearn told DAZNBoxing that he had given the parties backing Anthony Joshua’s fight with Tyson Fury until the end of this week to accept Matchroom’s contractual revisions, and he said, “But they’ve got to decide this week.”

Hearn’s position was that Wembley was his first choice, but he argued that Madison Square Garden would still deliver a major event, telling DAZNBoxing, “MSG will be great. Twenty thousand, it’ll be a massive fight. It just won’t be the same, but what we’re not going to do is we’re not going to lose the fight.”

Beyond geography, Bloody Elbow reported that Hearn would continue to insist that Dana White and the wider TKO Group have nothing to do with the show, quoting Hearn as saying, “No or else there will be no fight and we’ll just keep going.”

The same report said the stipulation was tied to Joshua’s deal, and it described Hearn’s explanation that the addendum responses reflect Anthony Joshua’s wishes, with Hearn stating, “So why would we [allow White to promote it]? None of it makes sense.”