Why Cardiff is set to win race to host Fury –Joshua fight

The long-awaited heavyweight fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua is expected to take place at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on Friday, 11 December.

While BBC Sport understands final details are still being hammered out between Netflix, Saudi Arabian organisers Sela and both fighters’ camps, Cardiff has firmly emerged as the frontrunner, with an official announcement expected this week.

It marks another dramatic twist in a saga that, only weeks ago, appeared destined for New York. A date at Madison Square Garden was so close to completion that plans were already being drawn up for a Manhattan news conference.

Instead, after Joshua and promoter Eddie Hearn refused to budge on their contractual right to stage the fight on British soil, the Welsh capital has taken centre stage.

BBC Sport takes a look at how Cardiff became the leading candidate to host what would arguably be the biggest event in British boxing in the 21st Century.

Wembley Stadium was long assumed to be the natural home for a meeting between the two defining British heavyweights of their generation. However, the path to making the fight was complicated by Joshua and Fury having signed separate agreements with Sela rather than a joint contract.

Joshua’s deal explicitly stipulated that the bout must take place in the United Kingdom, whereas Fury’s contained no such restriction.

That distinction proved critical when organisers and broadcast partner Netflix began lobbying to move the show to the United States.

Hearn acknowledged that virtually every other party involved preferred New York, with Matchroom even exploring what compensation would be required to waive the UK clause.

For a moment, that stand-off threatened to scupper the entire event. Fury publicly accused Joshua of stalling and briefly floated the prospect of a trilogy fight with Oleksandr Usyk.

But once Fury relented, organisers needed to find a British venue capable of satisfying the broadcast demands without leaving fans exposed to the British winter.

Cardiff, almost by process of elimination, became the answer.