Tyson Fury manager Spencer Brown says poster order was silliest Joshua dispute

Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua meet at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on 11 December after talks that Fury's manager, Spencer Brown, said took in four or five venues and, at one stage, a summer date.

Spencer Brown, Tyson Fury's manager, has said the order of the names on the fight poster was the silliest of the disputes in the long negotiations for Fury's heavyweight meeting with Anthony Joshua.

The two British former two-time world heavyweight champions meet on 11 December at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, with the WBA belt on the line. Their careers have run alongside each other for more than a decade, but until now the fight had never been agreed.

Speaking to Ariel Helwani, Brown said: “There were some silly things that we were arguing over.” The silliest, he said, was which fighter appeared first on the poster, a decision he said Netflix made and released without any input from Fury's side. He added: “That was the silliest thing we were looking at, Does it really matter?”

Brown said the deal had been hard for everyone involved to make. Four or five stadiums and different times of year were considered, and at one stage the fight looked set for the summer. He credited Turki Alalshikh and the other parties for holding their nerve: “Turki Alalshikh held his nerve, so did all the other promoters, Eddie Hearn, Netflix, Frank Warren. Everybody was working in the background to make this fight.” The route to the fight opened after Fury and Joshua were each beaten twice by Oleksandr Usyk, though it has still taken years to get the contract signed. Both men, now in their late thirties, took time out after those defeats before rebuilding. Joshua beat Jake Paul and Kristian Prenga, while Fury beat Arslanbek Makmudov and Mariusz Wach.

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