Will Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua actually be worth the wait?

Finally. Has a promotional tagline for a fight ever been more apt?

As you’ll no doubt be aware, unless you’ve dedicated your entire afternoon to staring at your junk emails in the forlorn hope of a code for an Oasis ticket, Tyson Fury (36-2-1) and Anthony Joshua (30-4) have finally agreed to trade blows.

The early hours of Saturday 12th December under the Principality Stadium’s roof will see these two behemoths of British heavyweight boxing settle the decade-long debate as to who is the premier big man of their era on these shores. Later on Thursday afternoon it was announced that the fight will be for the WBA ‘Super’ Heavyweight Title and so the winner will become a three-time champion.

Boxing overlord, Turki Alalshikh announced the contest on social media and confirmed that Zuffa frontman, Dana White will be involved in the promotion of the bout-much to the ire of Joshua’s career-long promoter, Eddie Hearn.

Should that issue be smoothed over along with a debate over the commencement of drug testing protocol, the bout will be broadcast via US streaming giant, Netflix at the ungodly hour of 2am in front of around 75,000 hardy souls in the Welsh capital.

During this round of negotiations, location seemed to be the main sticking point.

Wembley Stadium has always seemed to be the most logical venue-Joshua’s contract stipulating that the fight had to take place in the U.K. seemingly strengthened the national stadium’s chances to host the bout but a late-night start to suit the American audience scuppered those plans and so New York and the iconic, Madison Square Garden appeared set to play host to the biggest fight in British boxing history.

Team Joshua, with Eddie Hearn as cheerleader dug his heels in for his client’s contract to be honoured and his efforts have prevailed with Cardiff trumping New York.

Despite the fight announcement, many comments around believing it will happen when they are both in the ring were a common theme in the aftermath of this most overdue of announcements across social media and they are perfectly understandable given the protracted nature of negotiations this time around, never mind that this fight had been seriously mooted as far back as Joshua’s first crowning night in April 2016.

Since that night, a two-round demolition job against Charles Martin to relieve the American of his IBF belt-the same strap that Fury had been immediately stripped of after his own original rise to the summit when he outpointed Wladimir Klitshcko in Düsseldorf at the back end of 2015, the two giants have swapped call outs, agreed to fight in 2020 only to be scuppered by a court case, added and subsequently lost their world championship belts and now approaching the final chapters of their respective journeys and after underwhelming ‘warm-up’ fights a day apart in July, they will finally face off.

So what to expect?

After their last outings, most observers installed Morecambe man, Fury, as a strong favourite and that seemed more to do with Joshua’s frailty and vulnerability in being dropped twice by the unknown, Kristian Prenga in the opening round before stopping him in the following stanza to the relief of everyone in the Fury-Joshua business, rather than the ‘Gypsy King’ looking particularly impressive against the veteran Mariusz Wach, the Pole retiring in his corner after what was little more than a gentle spar behind closed doors in Thailand.

The addition of the world title belt adds another layer of intrigue to this mega-event with most in the boxing business, believing the days of Fury and Joshua as world champions were behind them, Oleksandr Usyk having beaten both men twice and Daniel Dubois hammering Joshua inside five rounds under the Wembley arch to signal the end of an era.

But will that opportunity to make history elevate these two old stagers in to providing a thrilling battle that prompts calls for a rematch or will it be a one-sided shellacking with one of the fighters having declined at a far faster rate than the other?

Whatever happens in the early hours of 12th December, and despite the naysayers on social media dismissing the importance of the fight now both men are in their mid-to-late thirties, it seems certain that this fight will grab the attention of the masses and give one of these bonafide superstars their ultimate victory.