The two tune-ups are done. Anthony Joshua (30-4, 27 KOs) survived two first-round knockdowns and stopped Kristian Prenga in the second round Saturday in Jeddah, one day after Tyson Fury (36-2-1, 25 KOs) retired Mariusz Wach on his stool after seven rounds in Pattaya, Thailand. The fight both men signed for, scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2026 with Netflix expected to broadcast, now has no obstacles left inside the ring. The only fight still going on is over where it happens, and there are three bids on the table: London, New York, and Las Vegas.

The contract is the starting point. Eddie Hearn told BoxingScene in June that the signed agreement leaves no ambiguity. “There has been some murmuring of the fight taking place in the US,” Hearn said. “The contract specifically states that the fight must take place in the UK.” The same report identified SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and the MGM Grand in Las Vegas as American venues that had come up in early conversations.

Since then, New York has entered the picture at the top of the list. According to PA news agency, Madison Square Garden has emerged as Turki Alalshikh’s preferred choice for the fight. Alalshikh wants a start time that captures a global audience, which would mean roughly a 2am first bell in the UK, and he would need an exemption to Wembley Stadium’s current curfews to stage it in London on that clock.

Hearn explained the broadcast math behind the pressure. “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, Hearn made clear which American city is pushing hardest: “A lot of the Americans want to do it at MSG; not Vegas, they want it at MSG.”

Speaking after the Prenga fight, Hearn held his position that the deal as written keeps the fight in Britain. “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 was more direct. He wants Wembley and says that was the plan from the first conversation. “When these conversations started, there was no other venue or location that was ever mentioned,” Joshua 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 complication is that Joshua’s signature is also the leverage. Any move abroad requires amending the contract, and Joshua’s side would have to agree to the new terms. That puts the man who wants Wembley in control of whether the fight leaves it, while the financier writing the checks prefers Manhattan and the Vegas casinos hold the fallback position they have occupied for every megafight of the last thirty years.

There is also a live dispute over who is actually running the promotion. Dana White has claimed more than once that he and Alalshikh made the fight, not Hearn or Frank Warren. “Call Eddie right now and ask him if he knows where the fight is,” White said after Zuffa Boxing’s first UK card in Bournemouth. “Call Eddie and ask him who negotiated the contract for the fight. It wasn’t him.”

Fury, for his part, would not commit to a venue after the Wach fight, and he did not appear in the ring in Jeddah despite speculation that the fight would be formally announced there. Joshua addressed him anyway. “Where is he? There’s two sides to this. Fire. And respect,” Joshua told ESPN. “I respect everything he’s done. We’re here now.”

The venue battle is playing out over a division that no longer has Oleksandr Usyk at the top of it. Usyk vacated the WBC, WBA and IBF titles on June 26, one month after his controversial 11th-round stoppage of Rico Verhoeven at the Pyramids of Giza, a fight the Dutch kickboxer was leading on the scorecards. “Today is Friday, the weather is good, and it’s a good day to say that I want to vacate all the belts that I currently hold, to make them free so that the guys who are in line for them can box,” Usyk said in a social media post, per Al Jazeera. He added that he is “leaving the belts but I’m not leaving the sport because I still have my last dance.” His team has said that final fight is expected to take place in the United States, and Zuffa Boxing has been in talks for a Usyk vs. Deontay Wilder fight.

The belts scattered quickly. The WBC elevated Agit Kabayel (27-0) from interim to full champion, and the German is not being selective about his first defense, which he wants in September or October. “For me it’s no problem, I’ll fight with everyone. You can call me. My phone is here, please call me, I’ll fight with everyone,” Kabayel told Sky Sports, before naming names: “Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, when you think you have a chance to be a three-time world champion, let’s do it. Kabayel will wait for you.” His manager Spencer Brown has a different first choice, telling Playbook Boxing, via Boxing News: “We are looking at a load of dance partners. I had a chat with Frank and George Warren yesterday, so they’ve got to put it all together. For me, it would probably be Jarrell Miller.”

The IBF belt is vacant, and its resolution is on the tightest clock in the division. The organization ordered No. 1 contender Frank Sanchez (26-1, 19 KOs) to face No. 3 Moses Itauma (14-0, 12 KOs) for the title, with the two sides given until July 29, this Wednesday, to reach a deal before purse bids are called. The complication is that Itauma is already signed to fight Filip Hrgovic on August 29 at the O2 Arena in London, his toughest test as a professional. Sanchez’s manager Mike Borao is not sweating the order of operations, telling Sky Sports: “Frank Sanchez will become the first Cuban heavyweight champion in 2026, no matter who he boxes for the vacant title.”

Itauma, 21, sits at the center of nearly every path forward. He is the WBO’s No. 1 contender to Daniel Dubois, in position for the vacant IBF title if the Sanchez fight comes together, and carries an endorsement from the man who just walked away with the division’s lineage. “Itauma, for me, is a special guy. He’s very relaxed before fights and after fights. No trash talking. Just training. He’s the future,” Usyk told DAZN, via Boxing News. Itauma’s own reaction to the vacated belts was practical. “To be fair, he’s earned his stripes,” he told IFL TV. “He was cruiserweight and heavyweight champion. At the same time, it made it difficult for all of us. But, now that they’re all separated, we can start collecting some.”

The WBO title belongs to Dubois, who stopped Fabio Wardley in the 11th round in Manchester on May 9 and now looks toward a mandatory defense against Itauma, a fight Itauma has said he expects in 2027. Derek Chisora, preparing for his own farewell, sees the division narrowing to those two. “There’s only one person in this generation right now who can cause a headache for everybody, and that’s Moses,” Chisora told Secondsout, via Boxing News 24. “And then I think Daniel has got rid of his demons. Them two. But I don’t see anybody else. I don’t see anybody else troubling those two guys right now.”

The WBA belt stayed in Moscow. Murat Gassiev (34-2, 27 KOs), elevated to sole champion when Usyk vacated, stopped late replacement Peter Kadiru in the sixth round on July 11 at VTB Arena, after Tony Yoka withdrew with a back injury a week out. The co-feature on that card may end a notable career: Joe Joyce, 40, waved off his fight with unbeaten Artem Suslenkov (15-0, 10 KOs) in the 11th round, his fifth loss in six fights, and Sky Sports reported he will face renewed calls to retire.

New York, meanwhile, has a second heavyweight fight to chase. Jarrell Miller (28-1-2, 22 KOs) won a WBA title eliminator over Lenier Pero in April and has been calling for Deontay Wilder (45-4-1, 43 KOs) ever since, a matchup Hearn has pitched for months. “For me, the American fight is Deontay Wilder against Jarrell Miller. Run it in New York. That’s a serious fight,” Hearn told The Ring, a fight this site made the case for in April. Nothing has been announced, and Miller’s eliminator win also puts him in the WBA conversation for Gassiev, on top of the interest from Kabayel’s camp.

Behind Miller and Wilder, Brooklyn has another heavyweight moving up the American ladder. Pryce Taylor (13-0, 8 KOs) won the first ten-round distance fight of his career on July 11, taking a wide unanimous decision over Issac Munoz in San Juan, Puerto Rico, then named his targets. “I want all the fighters,” Taylor said, per World Boxing News. “Efe, I see you on the bench. Come off the bench and fight me. Kingsley, I’m going to take you out. All the fighters, Daniel Dubois, Anthony Joshua, I want the smoke.” The 29-year-old, promoted by Dmitriy Salita, spent time earlier this year as a sparring partner in Wilder’s Tuscaloosa camp ahead of the Chisora fight. “Wilder was inspiring,” Taylor told Fightnews. “He hung out with us and gave us all a lot of good advice. He said he liked my style and that was really cool to hear.” Taylor says he wants at least two more fights this year and expects to be ready for top-fifteen opposition in 2027.

Since our last full survey of the division in May, every open question except two has been answered. Dubois took the WBO belt, Usyk had his scare and walked away from the titles, Kabayel and Gassiev were crowned, and both Joshua and Fury cleared their tune-ups. What remains is the IBF’s Wednesday deadline for Sanchez and Itauma, and the venue decision Hearn says will take shape over the next couple of weeks, with London holding the contract, New York holding the powerbroker’s preference, and Las Vegas holding the money.