Tyson Fury has turned boxing on its head – now Anthony Joshua awaits

Fury’s stunning victory over Deontay Wilder has set the wheels in motion for a historical showdown with Joshua. As Luke Brown writes, boxing cannot wait

Tyson Fury is world heavyweight champion once again (Reuters)

As recently as early December, the United States of America ruled the heavyweight division.

Deontay Wilder held the emerald green WBC belt. And Andy Ruiz Jr had the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO belts. Both men fight under the Premier Boxing Champions banner and, for the first time in years, Great Britain’s heavyweights found themselves left out in the cold.

But in the space of just two rematches everything changed. First Anthony Joshua outpointed a woefully out of shape Ruiz. And then Tyson Fury sensationally stood in the pocket and stopped the previously undefeated Wilder, stealing not only the WBC title but the previously vacant The Ring magazine belt.

Fury may yet fight Wilder again. Wilder’s co-managers are confident the 34-year-old will exercise his contractual right to an immediate third fight, eager to avenge the sole blot on his professional copybook. But if he does so, he will enter the fight as a rank outsider. He was not only beaten but Fury but bullied — made to look desperately short of ideas in a fight that exposed his lack of ringcraft.

Regardless of whether a third fight is announced or not, thoughts have already turned to a mouthwatering clash between Fury and Joshua, for the heavyweight division’s collected finery. It would be a historical bout not just for Great Britain but boxing: never before has one man held all heavyweight titles simultaneously.

Joshua’s camp are desperate for the fight. His promoter, Eddie Hearn, has made a career out of dismissing Fury’s achievements but even he was forced to concede that Fury “battered” Wilder on Saturday. “Everybody is very clear on this. Everybody wants the fight,” he added.

Fury has been more ambiguous. He can afford to be. Immediately after his victory he speculated that a third fight with Wilder could take place at the soon to be constructed Las Vegas Raiders Stadium, which is set to hold 70,000 people, while he will be legally obliged to fight Wilder if his team decide to exercise the clause.

Yet it will not be lost on Fury that the unexpectedly comprehensive nature of his victory has completely shifted the dynamics of his division. Wilder has lost his allure. And Fury’s performance — as well as his recent residency in Las Vegas and stint in WWE — has built his American fanbase to such an extent that a fight with Joshua would do big business, even if the Londoner is not yet a major star in the States.

The biggest clue that Fury knows which way the wind is blowing is perhaps his choice of gum shield for the Wilder rematch. Fury tauntingly wore a mouthguard in the colours of the Nigerian flag — a wink to Joshua who watched the fight in the country of his mother’s birth.

And so, while Saturday’s stunning result has shaken boxing to the core, it has not actually impacted upon the fight that the sport wishes to see the most. There is so much financial and legal wrangling to go before Fury and Joshua will end up in a ring together, but the fight is now so big that it appears an inevitability. History is at stake and, more tellingly, there is money to be made.