It will be possible to be at ringside to watch Tyson Fury box in Thailand this Friday evening and then attend Anthony Joshua’s fight in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night.
The Gypsy King will prove that by flying from Bangkok to Riyadh soon after his encounter with the veteran Mariusz Wach in time to see AJ take on somebody called Kristian Prenga.
It is safe to presume that precious few, if any, of their respective thousands of fans will join Fury on that journey or pitch up at either occasion. And not only because many of them will have sacrificed a year or two’s wages, perhaps their mortgages, maybe their marriages on England’s ill-fated World Cup expedition.
Even the rich boys on tour are likely to jib at forking out another small fortune to attend distant events which are fights in name only. Joshua’s flight booking gives the game away, as does the choice of venues. No capital cities this time. Fury goes through the motions in the notorious Thai beach resort of Pattaya. Joshua at Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah-on-sea.
Of course these are by way of preparation for them fighting each other in that forever awaited box-office boomer later this year. But to be honest these match-ups are not so much warm-ups as water-treaders. These opponents would be unlikely to get work as their sparring partners.
Describing Poland’s Mariusz Wach as a ring veteran is actually an understatement of his decline since he went into a world heavyweight title fight against Wladimir Klitschko as 27-0 unbeaten challenger. He not only lost that night in Germany 14 years ago but failed a drugs test which interrupted for two years his descent into today’s 39 wins, 13 defeats record.
Anthony Joshua is back in action on Saturday when he faces Kristian Prenga in Saudi Arabia
Tyson Fury is fighting Mariusz Wach in Bangkok on Friday as he prepares to secure a long-awaited bout with Joshua
The longer he drags on, as he approaches his 46th birthday, the more he becomes a useful punch-bag, given his masochistic capacity to absorb punches for several rounds. A painful service he has provided to a number of British heavyweights, Dillian Whyte, Frazer Clarke and Hughie Fury among them. This is so patently a mismatch that it is not being televised anywhere in the world, but being saved by Netflix to help promote Fury v Joshua when that finally comes around,
Two years ago Wach was flattened in as many rounds by our world heavyweight champion-in-waiting Moses Itauma. That mercifully swift ending made for more comfortable viewing than some of the pointless beatings he has taken down the years. Make it quick, Tyson.
Kristian Prenga is a virtually unknown entity outside his native Albania. He has passed almost equally unnoticed on undercards mostly around New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and across the Canadian border since he emigrated to the US.
At least he is ten years younger than Wach and has 20 knock-out wins on his record against one points defeat. Not that you are likely to recognise any of the names on that dance card. Try Joey Dawejko, Aldo Callendar, Tim Chemelli, Willie Jake Jr, or the only man to beat him Giovanni Auriemma. Me neither. Most of them appear to have other jobs, such as barmen, bouncers or cab drivers.
Prenga, a pleasant enough feller, made the right noises at his London press conference: ‘A J and his team have made a mistake. They’ve overlooked my knock-out record. They’ve forgotten that he can no longer take a big punch like mine. Get ready for the world-wide shock which will change my life forever.’
He seems not to have noted that AJ is a former Olympic gold medallist and two-time world heavyweight champion. Nor that he is stepping into an altogether higher realm. Nor that Joshua is highly motivated emotionally by this being his first fight since his two close friends and team members were killed in a car crash in Africa which he was lucky to survive. ‘This is for them,’ he says. Get it done early, AJ. before he has a chance to land.
Fury is set to fly from Bangkok to Saudi Arabia to watch Joshua a day after his own fight
Then you can invite Fury to join you in the ring – ‘but don’t forget Tyson I’m the landlord for this one’ – so they can start the big sell.
November is the likely month for Fury v Joshua 1. Wembley the stadium of choice but only if Brent Council agree to lift their usual 11 pm curfew and permit it to be transmitted live to the American TV audience at somewhere between 2 am and 4 am London Sunday time.
So enormous will be the difference from this weekend that Fury is about to entertain no more than a thousand or so locals in a small, screened-off hall. He is donating the revenue from those tickets to good causes in Thailand, of which he has become fond as a training camp. It will be charity all-round. What with Wach and Prenga picking up probably the biggest purses of their lives for their roles as fall guys. But what if the inconceivable did happen?
Not only would the gigantic pay-days of Fury’s and Joshua’s last hurrah go down the drain but at least one or maybe both their careers would be terminated.
Don’t dare mention it.
*Fury v Wach this Friday night will be for private screening only.
*Joshua v Prenga will be televised live on DAZN pay-per-view this Saturday night
*Fury v Joshua is expected to be televised live to Netflix subscribers in the early hours one Sunday morning in November
