Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua’s psychological war has taken an unexpected twist

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Tyson Fury is the master of getting in your head. His Batman antics around Wladimir Klitschko broke through the Ukrainian’s stoic demeanour in 2015, before jokes turned to in-ring taunts during his first world championship win. Deontay Wilder was left infamously rattled by his gift of the gab during their trilogy. Throughout his storied career, it’s been a primary weapon; to get an opponent on the ropes before a bell even rings.

The expectation would be that for a long-awaited ‘Battle of Britain’, his psychological attacks would enter overdrive. Against his far more conceited rival Anthony Joshua, who rarely gives much away, Fury has over a 16 years worth of ammunition on ‘AJ’; from amateur to fading force, from Finchley Boxing Club spars to exposed chins under the Wembley arch.

So far, that’s not quite what we’re getting from ‘The Gypsy King’.

A press conference that five years ago would have been laced with calculated barbs was instead cordial, borderline friendly. Maybe it speaks to a change of approach after being mentally and pugilistically outdone in his two losses to Oleksandr Usyk. Fury is not going ‘all guns blazing’ in the build this time around; he says wants to save that for inside the ropes.

Asked if he will look to exploit Joshua’s supposed mental fragility, Fury replied: “No. I’ll look to a devastating right hook or a right hand to the jaw or to the temple. That’s what I’ll look for on the night.

“The rest of it, he said, she said, doesn’t count. It only counts when the bell goes and both men are exchanging blows. In heavyweight boxing, anything can happen, that’s why we’re getting paid to do our job.”

Of course, Fury has not gone mute; shots are still being traded. The 2010 sparring session was the first thing addressed on stage at Olympia London, but comments were laughed off by both sides. The digs at Joshua’s losses and his escape against Kristian Prenga were there, and they were anticipated. But there was nothing that made you gasp; nothing particularly vintage Fury.

That might have been a surprise to Joshua, who thought he’d been given a taste of what was to come last month. Fury reshared a speech Joshua made during a Black Lives Matter rally from June 2020, something which garnered heavy criticism at the time. “I think people took it in the wrong context. It could come across as light versus dark and I was presented in a dark fashion, basically saying ‘divide people’,” Joshua said, before adding that he actually did not write the speech.

Fury’s objective in doing this was clear to Joshua.

“A lot of these things are used to try to demonise your character, to a degree,” he continued. “And in boxing it’s an open playing field, you can do and say whatever you want. He is able to and I could do the same to him. But he just chose to go as low as that, so be it, I will take it with a pinch of salt.”

But for all the talk about ‘AJ’ being the one who will have to withstand a psychological barrage, he is the one that so far seems to be going on the offensive; not with his words, but with his recruits.

Joshua had already teamed back up with Fury’s former trainer Ben Davison, who had previously taken a neutral stance and pledged to not get in the middle of their rivalry. “Is it confirmed? That’s deflating, isn’t it Frank,” Fury reacted to the news, flanked by promoter Frank Warren.

‘AJ’ is now getting help from Peter Fury, the estranged uncle of his rival. “I speak to Peter Fury, he’s willing to help me. Me and Peter get along,” he said.

Joshua insists the hires, while a “match made in heaven”, aren’t in his camp to provide an inside scoop on Fury. But by bringing in two of his former allies, it seems a sure-fire way to get inside Fury’s head.

Fury does still have his bite, riled by the hold-ups that have forced him to “bend over backwards” for Joshua to get this fight booked.

Joshua, alongside promoter Eddie Hearn, fought against Turki Alalshikh, Dana White and Netflix to get the fight in the UK, its rightful home. Fury was more neutral in the saga but picks holes in the idea of Joshua’s national heroism. Asked why ‘AJ’ didn’t want to fight in the United States, Fury jibes: “I know what he’ll say, because he cares about Britain, he’s a patriot so much… hence the reason he lives in Dubai.”

It’s part of what he describes as Joshua’s “fake facade”, which is all he knows about his 36-year-old foe. “Sometimes that slips now and again, but I don’t know him as an individual, I don’t know him at all.”

The Fury of old may have looked to antagonise and truly expose the ‘real’ Joshua before fight night. But after one press conference, he’s yet to go for the jugular; neither has ‘AJ’.

With diminished emphasis on the mind, there is only theatre of war that now matters for the ‘Battle of Britain’: the ring. And within those confines, Fury’s self-confidence remains stratospheric.

“He never was any good to me, to be fair. He would never beat me in a million years in any time,” he says. “When I hit him with that right hand, he’s going to feel the full force of it, he’s going to fall over in a heap. But mainly before that, I’d say he’s looking for a landing position before the bell goes on the floor somewhere.”