Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua are two of the best heavyweights of this current generation.
Fury first became world champion in 2015 when he defeated Wladimir Klitschko in Germany to become WBA, IBF and WBO champion.
A battle with mental health led to him vacating the belts and having nearly three years out of the ring, but Fury then claimed world honours again in 2020 when he stopped WBC champion Deontay Wilder.
It was one of those vacated belts that allowed Joshua to first become world champion, when he stopped Charles Martin inside two rounds in 2016 to become IBF champion.
Victories in unification fights over Klitschko and Joseph Parker respectively then allowed ‘AJ’ to add the WBA and WBO belts to his collection.
Things haven’t gone as well for Fury and Joshua most recently, with ‘The Gypsy King’ losing in his undisputed battle with Oleksandr Usyk in May, while Joshua was stopped by Daniel Dubois in September in his bid to become a three-time world champion.
Larry Holmes is a legend in the heavyweight division, holding the world title from 1978 to 1985, and he has told OLBG how he feels Joshua and Fury would do in his era.
“We were tougher. We never said ‘who are we going to fight?’ We just fought. We fought everybody, no picking and choosing.
But Anthony Joshua’s a good fighter, you can’t take that away from him, he’s a good fighter. He would have been a top ten heavyweight in my era. He’d be a good fighter in my era, same goes for Tyson Fury.
Those guys are dedicated, but you had to fight each other in my era; there was no way around it.”
Holmes has also shared his thoughts on the upcoming Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight, giving a clear verdict after watching ‘Iron Mike’ recently train.
