Anthony Joshua (30-4, 27 KOs) and Tyson Fury (36-2-1, 25 KOs) are now expected to meet in New York, according to a report from BoxingScene citing multiple sources. The report states that the hope of staging the fight in front of British fans, at a British hour, is all but finished.

No venue has been announced, and no date has been confirmed. The fight remains scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2026, with November the target and Netflix expected as the broadcast partner. Madison Square Garden has been identified in multiple reports as the preferred building.

The obstacle in London was never the stadium. It was the clock. Turki Alalshikh and Netflix have pushed for a main event that starts no earlier than 2am UK time to serve viewers in the United States and elsewhere. Wembley Stadium operates under an 11pm curfew, and any extension would have to be reviewed by the venue’s safety advisory group, of which Brent Council is a member.

Sky Sports reported that ring walks would need to begin at 2am for the fight to land at Wembley, and that Joshua’s team had no objection to that start time if the approvals could be secured. Sky Sports News subsequently reported that Brent Council had still not been contacted about extending the curfew for the proposed November date.

Eddie Hearn has spent the past several weeks holding the same line: the signed agreement puts the fight in Britain. “There has been some murmuring of the fight taking place in the US,” Hearn told BoxingScene in June. “The contract specifically states that the fight must take place in the UK.”

Hearn also laid out the broadcast math driving the pressure to move. “Netflix want the biggest audience possible, and they feel like a mid-afternoon start time in the US will jeopardise the potential to maximise the audience,” he said, per a report carried by AOL. In the same remarks, he identified where the American push was coming from: “A lot of the Americans want to do it at MSG; not Vegas, they want it at MSG.”

Speaking to DAZN before the Kristian Prenga fight, Hearn said the request had been made directly. “We’ve been told in the last 24 hours that [a fight in America] is what they want,” he said, as reported by Sky Sports. “That doesn’t tally up with the contract that we signed. Until we’re happy, we expect every point of that contract to be followed.”

After Joshua survived two first-round knockdowns and stopped Prenga in the second on July 25 in Jeddah, Hearn repeated the position. “There’s a reason we put contracts together,” he said. “Let’s be honest this is a fight for the British public. The MSG, great venue, but this is something that will be remembered across all generations forever. There’s nothing I need to do to make the fight. The fight’s signed. The fight’s made. So, we’ll see what the next couple of weeks bring.”

Joshua has been blunter still. “When these conversations started, there was no other venue or location that was ever mentioned,” he said. “It was simple. This is the road map. You fight, come back, fight, and then providing you’re victorious, you’ll be fighting Tyson Fury in the UK, basically Wembley. I wouldn’t expect it to be at Tottenham or the Principality Stadium respectfully. It’s just got that history when you think of Wembley. So I’m not too sure where all this conversation started of different locations, new this that and the other.”

The mechanics of the dispute cut in Joshua’s favor on paper. Moving the fight abroad requires amending a signed contract, which means Joshua’s side has to agree to new terms. The fighter who wants Wembley controls whether the fight leaves it. The financier writing the checks prefers Manhattan.

Former European champion Spencer Oliver, speaking on talkSPORT Boxing, said New York had become the clear frontrunner for reasons that have nothing to do with either fighter’s preference. “I think the frontrunner right now is New York, Madison Square Garden, because that’s the middle ground with the time difference,” Oliver said, in comments reported by Boxing247. “The paymasters behind this, which is Turki Alalshikh and Riyadh Season, they want that fight to be a massive event for the international markets because of the money that both guys are getting paid.”

Oliver added that he understood the British case and did not expect it to prevail. “The British public, the British boxing fans deserve it here in the UK, and I think that’s Anthony Joshua’s stance. He wants it to be at Wembley, but it’s ultimately a business, isn’t it? There’s a lot of money being invested in this. It has to go where the fight has to go,” he said.

Dana White, who has repeatedly claimed that he and Alalshikh made the fight rather than the two promoters, reduced the question to one line when asked about the delay. “The answer to the question is you go wherever the money is. That’s the answer. Where’s the money? Go where the money is,” White told The Mac Life, in remarks reported by Boxing247. He also suggested the holdup sits with the negotiating table rather than the promotion: “I think you can see publicly, lots of games being played, lots of ego involved and things like that.”

Fury has stayed out of the venue argument. He retired Mariusz Wach on his stool after seven rounds in Pattaya, Thailand, on July 24, one day before Joshua fought in Jeddah, and declined to name a preference afterward. “I’ll regroup. Hopefully the next big fight is signed next week, and we head wherever we’re going to head,” he said. He also ruled out flying to Saudi Arabia for a face-off: “I’ll go and face off with my wife. I’ve been away the last six or seven months. I’m definitely not going to Jeddah.”

Joshua addressed the absence in the ring in Jeddah. “Where is he? There’s two sides to this. Fire. And respect,” he told ESPN. “I respect everything he’s done. We’re here now.”

A New York staging would return Joshua to the building where his professional career changed direction. He made his United States debut at Madison Square Garden in June 2019 and was stopped in the seventh round by Andy Ruiz Jr., losing the WBA, IBF and WBO titles. Fury has never fought in New York as a professional.

The venue question is the last piece of business remaining on a fight that has been discussed since 2017. Both men cleared their tune-ups. The contracts were reported as signed in April. What is left is a three-way bidding fight between London, New York and Las Vegas, and by this weekend’s reporting, one of the three has moved to the front.