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Joshua and Wilder is a Huge Fight with Permanent Consequences – Not a Meaningless Undercard Fixture

It’s not often that sports events reveal unrelated breaking news, but this was the case at Martin Brundle’s grid walk at the United States Grand Prix when the 64-year-old interviewed Anthony Joshua.

At the end of the live two-minute conversation from the Circuit of the Americas in late October, Joshua announced that plans were currently in place for a mega card in Saudi Arabia in April next year. According to Joshua, he will go toe to toe with Deontay Wilder on the same night that Tyson Fury goes head-to-head with Oleksandr Usyk.

The road to the biggest fights of the modern era

The location for this proposed double-header is in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia which will also host Fury’s crossover bout with Francis Ngannou. Should the Englishman get through unscathed during his tie with the former UFC heavyweight champion – which it should be said feels like a mere formality as the latest Tyson Fury vs Francis Ngannou Odds prices the current WBO champion at just -1200 to win, then it’s likely an official announcement will take place on the proposed itinerary for April.

While you can already find official boxing betting odds for Fury’s unification world title match with Usyk who has been priced at +180 to win, the fact remains that an unexpected defeat to Ngannou may scupper the deal with Fury immediately activating his rematch clause with the Cameroonian-French fighter.

Of course, Fury is not at risk of losing his belts to Ngannou as they won’t be on the line, but their fight will still be considered a professional encounter which will officially go down on the records of both men. The bottom line is that while Fury is expected to sail through against Ngannou, there is still a level of jeopardy that has the potential to majorly disrupt the 2024 boxing schedule.

All being well though, the most eagerly awaited heavyweight fights of the last few decades should go ahead as planned in early spring next year. However, is Joshua’s dust-up with Wilder deserving of being on the undercard? At least, is there too much at stake for this fight to be treated like a curtain-raiser?

A match a decade in the making consigned to an undercard

With Joshua having lost to Usyk twice already, the inescapable reality is that this will be the biggest night of the 34-year-old’s career with a defeat all but ending any chance of facing Fury.

The same can be said for Wilder who still harbors ambitions of winning back his WBO titles that Fury took off him. If Wilder succumbed to Joshua then that would surely signal the end for the big-hitting boxer from Alabama.

Essentially, this fight will finally end the journey of one of the modern heavyweights in the sport; should that happen on a night when it is not treated as the main event? Too much has happened over the last decade for this bout to be regarded as anything other than a do-or-die showdown.

Can fans still have their cake and eat it?

The irony is that for far too long, boxing fans have been starved of seeing the division’s main protagonists fight each other. Now, with the two most desired matches eventually being lined up for the same night, there is a sense of hesitation among boxing purists as to whether they should take place within a few minutes of each other.

Ultimately, you can’t help but feel that Joshua’s fight with Wilder is being undermined or at least lost in Saudi Arabia’s determination to be regarded as the world’s capital for boxing fights.