ANTHONY JOSHUA will have to have a ‘perfect’ night if he’s to win his blockbuster showdown with Tyson Fury.
That’s the view of world champ Claressa Shields.
The long-awaited Battle of Britain is on the brink of being announced after both men agreed to a Saudi Arabia showdown.
Joshua’s chances of winning the mega-money bout were immediately written off after Fury’s emphatic dethroning of Deontay Wilder last February.
But fellow Olympian and three-weight world champion Shields reckons AJ can get the better of The Gypsy King, so long as he flawlessly executes his game plan.
She told Vegas Insider: “I think Tyson is great and a great opponent for AJ. But I’m on a roll with AJ.
“I think he learnt a lot from the Andy Ruiz fight.
“I just think now AJ knows to over-prepare, over focus, put boxing first. So I don’t think that he’ll be facing another defeat for a very, very long time.
“The keys to victories will be his head movement, his jab, bodywork and using his combinations and I think he’s been doing that very well in all of his fights.
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“He’s just going to have to be perfect that night because Tyson Fury is someone to be reckoned with.
“Tyson Fury got a great jab, good footwork, movement, he holds some power, but I just think AJ brings more to the table skills wise.
“If AJ brings his A-game, focuses and uses all his skills; like I said, he’s going to need his jab intact, the head movement, the bodywork, everything in order to win that fight.
“Tyson Fury is going to have to fight his butt off too in order to beat AJ.
“I feel like AJ got a lot of heart, I see him get dropped by [Wladimir] Klitschko and get back up and I’m a huge supporter of him.”
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn recently revealed the biggest fight in the history of British boxing is being targetted for late July or early August.
But in a leaked FaceTime call with boxing great Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, Fury claimed he will share the ring with AJ in JULY.
When the Mexican legend asked him if he’s ‘preparing for a fight’, Fury replied: “Yes, in July.”
Drafts of the final contracts were exchanged this week and have made Hearn confident the fight will take place this summer.
He said: “We have exchanged some more final drafts and there will be a few more phone calls but it is as done as it can be.
“It is non-stop at the moment but it is happening, it is 100 per cent happening.”
