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Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua took very different routes to the top of the heavyweight division, and their styles are almost opposites. One is a 6ft 9in boxer who wins with movement and feints, the other an Olympic champion built around power. The Fury Joshua odds reflect how evenly those qualities can be weighed, so here is how each man wins and how each could lose.
Fury's strengths: size and movement
Fury stands 6ft 9in with a reach of around 85 inches, yet he moves like a much smaller man. He switches between orthodox and southpaw, feints constantly and rarely stands still long enough to be set up.
His 2015 win over Wladimir Klitschko in Dusseldorf showed what that does to an opponent. Klitschko had ruled the division for close to a decade, and Fury took his titles on points by making him hesitate for 12 rounds.
Fury's strengths: ring intelligence and recovery
Fury can change his plan between fights. After a draw with Deontay Wilder in 2018, he went into the 2020 rematch as the aggressor and stopped Wilder in the seventh round.
His powers of recovery are just as important. He got up from a heavy knockdown in the 12th round of that first Wilder fight, then climbed off the canvas twice in the fourth round of their third meeting in 2021 before knocking Wilder out in the 11th.
Fury's weaknesses
The other side of those comebacks is that Fury gets hit and dropped more often than his skills suggest he should. Steve Cunningham floored him in 2013, and Francis Ngannou, making his professional boxing debut, put him down in 2023 before Fury scraped a split decision.
His two defeats to Oleksandr Usyk in 2024 showed the limits, too. A smaller, faster southpaw out-worked him, and Fury was badly hurt in the ninth round of the first fight. Age matters as well. Fury was born in 1988, and long spells out of the ring have not always suited him, although he has fought twice in 2026 after 16 months out.
Joshua's strengths: power and pedigree
Joshua won super-heavyweight gold at the London 2012 Olympics, and most of his professional wins have come inside the distance. His right hand and uppercut are the most dangerous punches either man owns, as Klitschko found at Wembley in 2017.
He can box to a plan when he needs to. After losing his titles to Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019, Joshua won the rematch six months later by keeping his distance behind the jab. In 2024 he stopped Ngannou inside two rounds, the same man who had put Fury down.
Joshua's weaknesses
When Joshua is hurt, he can struggle to recover, although he got up from two first-round knockdowns against Kristian Prenga in July 2026 to win in the second. Ruiz dropped him four times in their first fight before the stoppage in the seventh round, and Daniel Dubois knocked him out at Wembley in 2024.
He has also had problems with clever movers. Usyk beat him twice on points, in 2021 and 2022, by staying out of range and making him reluctant to commit. Fury is the tallest and most awkward mover Joshua will have faced.
How the styles meet
The reach gap of around three inches favours Fury, and his best route is to keep the fight long, lean on Joshua in close and make him work. Joshua's path is to set up the right hand early, before Fury settles into a rhythm.
That contrast is why method-of-victory and round betting sit alongside the main market in boxing betting odds, and why a fight between two men in their mid-to-late 30s may not go the distance. Even so, one record still stands out. Fury has never been stopped as a professional, while Joshua has been stopped twice.
