The all-British rivalries that paved the way for Fury v Joshua
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Some of the biggest nights in British boxing have come when two home fighters who could not stand each other finally shared a ring. Tyson Fury against Anthony Joshua is the largest of them, and the Fury Joshua odds reflect a fight that fans have argued over for the best part of a decade. Before the pair meet at the Principality Stadium, here are the domestic rivalries that showed how much a British grudge match can mean.
Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn
This is the rivalry every other one is measured against. Benn was the hard-hitting brawler from Ilford, while Eubank was the showman who vaulted the ropes and spoke like a Victorian gentleman. Their first fight, for Benn’s WBO middleweight title at the NEC in Birmingham in 1990, ended in the ninth round with Eubank the winner after a brutal contest.
The rematch at Old Trafford in 1993 drew about 42,000 for a super-middleweight unification fight. It finished as a draw, and the two never met again.
Tyson Fury and Dereck Chisora
Fury and Chisora fought three times over 11 years. A 22-year-old Fury outpointed Chisora at Wembley Arena in 2011 to win the British and Commonwealth titles. In the rematch at the ExCeL in London in 2014, Chisora’s corner pulled him out after 10 rounds.
The third meeting came at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in 2022, with Fury defending his WBC heavyweight title. He stopped Chisora in the 10th round, and the pair left the ring on good terms.
Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte
Whyte had beaten Joshua as an amateur, and the grudge carried into their professional meeting at the O2 Arena in 2015, with the British heavyweight title at stake. Whyte rocked Joshua in the second round, the first time the unbeaten Olympic champion had looked in trouble as a professional. Joshua recovered and knocked him out in the seventh.
Carl Froch and George Groves
Their first fight in Manchester in 2013 ended in controversy. Groves dropped Froch in the opening round, and many felt the referee stepped in too early when he stopped it in the ninth. The demand for a rematch was so strong that it moved to Wembley Stadium in 2014, where 80,000 watched Froch end it with a right hand in the eighth.
Amir Khan and Kell Brook
Khan and Brook were talked about as opponents for more than a decade before they finally met at the AO Arena in Manchester in 2022. By then both were past their best, but the fight still sold out. Brook stopped Khan in the sixth round, and both men retired soon afterwards.
A second generation of Eubank and Benn
The sons of the original rivals picked up where their fathers left off. Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn were first due to fight in 2022, but that date collapsed. They eventually met at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in April 2025, when Eubank Jr won on points, and Benn reversed the result at the same venue later that year.
What these rivalries have in common
Each of these fights grew out of years of talk, with a clear contrast between the two men and a sense that only one of them could be right. That is why they filled the biggest venues available at the time, and why the rematches often drew bigger crowds than the first fights. Waiting rarely hurt interest. Khan and Brook sold out a decade after the idea was first raised, and Froch and Groves drew roughly four times the crowd when the second fight moved from a Manchester arena to Wembley.
Fury and Joshua have all of those ingredients and more. Both have been world heavyweight champions, both have filled Wembley, and they have traded words for years. For anyone browsing the boxing betting odds, it is the domestic rivalry British fans have waited longest to see.
Betting is for over-18s only.
