With a rapid turnaround of events, we have gone from the mouth-watering prospect of Anthony Joshua v Tyson Fury meeting in August, to separate fights for the British champions instead.
It looks now that we will indeed see Tyson Fury v Deontay Wilder III after an arbitration interjection stated that Fury was contractually obligated to fight Wilder.
Once again, we have to potentially put Joshua v Fury on the backburner.
Fury v Wilder Boxing Betting Odds
Tyson Fury 2/7, Deontay Wilder 5/2, Draw 25/1
* (odds recorded at 23:33 GMT on May 20th, 2021 at Paddy Power)
Fury v Wilder III
It’s looking likely then on the weekend of July 14th in Las Vegas, we will see Fury v Wilder III.
The two had first met in late 2019 when a tremendous draw was declared, even though most people thought Fury had done enough to win.
14 months later the two were back in the ring and Fury dominated the American, stopping Wilder in the 7th.
The third meeting between them was supposed to have happened last year.
But with the year getting extremely complicated, it never happened. An injury to Wilder was in play as well.
So that kind of went away and all the hype moved on to Joshua v Fury.
But less than 24 hours after Fury was on social media saying that a date was booked to face Joshua in August, things were turned on their head.
An arbitration hearing in the USA decided that Fury v Wilder had to go ahead before September.
So that is where we are at now for boxing betting.
What about Joshua v Fury?
Not only have fans been desperate to see the two British heavyweight champions go head to head, but the planned Joshua v Fury bout was going to be a history-maker.
All four heavyweight belts were on the line for the fine time in a bout. It could still be of course, but now there are obstacles.
Fury has to hold on to his WBC title against Wilder first.
In Fury v Wilder boxing betting, the Gypsy King to win the fight by a knockout is at 5/6 odds* (odds recorded at 23:33 GMT on May 20th, 2021 at Paddy Power).
This interruption has also meant Joshua is going to have a fight on his hands in the summer.
That is probably going to be against mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk.
If either Fury or Joshua loses, then of course we may not get to see that big unification duel.
Without that on the line, the two may just never cross paths in the ring.
Joshua v Usyk Boxing Betting
It does appear that Joshua’s camp is moving on to Plan B already, with the Tyson Fury fight being pulled out from beneath them.
That will be a fight against WBO mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk. The Ukrainian has only recently made the move up to the heavyweight division.
In his second fight at the level, he won the WBO intercontinental title against Derek Chisora by decision.
Joshua is the early odds-on favourite for the fight but will face a tricky and somewhat unknown quantity in Usyk.
Usyk has been around the block, but what he is capable of in the heavyweight division is still a mystery.
Anthony Joshua will have WBO, WBA and IBF titles on the line in that bout, which is still to be confirmed at the time of writing.
Joshua v Usyk Boxing Betting Odds
Joshua 3/10, Usyk 9/4, Draw 22/1
* (odds recorded at 23:33 GMT on May 20th, 2021 at Paddy Power)
Will Joshua v Fury happen?
With both Joshua and Fury now potentially fighting in July, that would open things up for a potential fight between them at the end of the year.
But that would be dependent on them both surviving their summer trials against difficult opponents.
You can imagine that if both do win their respective bouts, promoters would be doing everything to lock-in that fight as soon as possible.
