“SURPRISING BLOCKBUSTER: ‘THIS COULD BE USYK’S WEAK POINT!’ – Anthony Joshua Could Exploit the Same Vulnerability to Knock Out Tyson Fury”
Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury: A New Clue Could Change the Entire Fight
For years, Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury has been one of boxing’s most anticipated heavyweight matchups. Now, with both former champions moving closer to their long-awaited showdown, attention is turning toward the tactical details that could decide the fight.
One particularly intriguing theory has emerged from the contrasting performances of Joshua and Fury in their most recent bouts: the same weaknesses that made both men vulnerable against Oleksandr Usyk could become decisive if either fighter fails to make the necessary adjustments.

There is an important distinction, however. There is currently no confirmed evidence that Joshua has publicly declared that he has discovered a specific “Usyk weakness” that guarantees a knockout over Fury. Instead, the idea is best understood as a technical fight theory based on what has happened in recent heavyweight contests and on the stylistic similarities and differences between Fury, Joshua and Usyk.
That distinction matters because the Fury-Joshua fight itself remains a developing story. Recent reports indicate that contracts are in place, while the venue and final arrangements continue to generate controversy. A late-2026 meeting has been widely discussed, with Madison Square Garden reportedly among the possibilities, although Joshua’s team has pushed strongly for the fight to remain in the United Kingdom.
The bigger question is simple: Can Joshua turn Fury’s vulnerabilities into the opening he needs for a knockout?
The Usyk Factor Still Hangs Over Fury vs Joshua
Any serious analysis of Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua inevitably returns to Usyk.
Fury has already shared the ring with the Ukrainian twice, and both encounters ended in defeat. Usyk won their first meeting in May 2024 and repeated the victory in the December rematch, leaving Fury without an answer across two very different tactical battles.
Usyk has since moved toward the final stage of his career and announced that he would vacate his heavyweight titles, while his team has effectively ruled out a third fight with Fury.
That makes the Ukrainian’s performances against Fury particularly valuable when studying the upcoming Joshua matchup.
Usyk demonstrated that Fury could be pressured by a combination of movement, timing, positioning, body attacks and rapid combinations. He did not need to overpower Fury physically. Instead, he repeatedly created moments where Fury was forced to reset, turn and defend from uncomfortable positions.
That could be exactly the kind of blueprint Joshua’s team studies.
But Joshua cannot simply copy Usyk.
Joshua is an orthodox heavyweight with a fundamentally different rhythm, physical structure and offensive approach. His best weapons are his straight right hand, left hook, body punching, combinations and explosive finishing ability.
That difference could actually make the fight more dangerous for Fury.
Joshua’s Right Hand Could Be the Real Story
The most obvious weapon in Joshua’s arsenal remains the right hand.
That was made painfully clear during Joshua’s latest fight against Kristian Prenga.
Joshua survived a chaotic opening round in Jeddah, where Prenga dropped him twice before Joshua recovered and stopped him in the second round. The result was spectacular, but the first round raised major questions about Joshua’s durability and defensive discipline.
The key detail was what happened after Joshua regained his composure.
Rather than becoming completely defensive, Joshua found the range and unleashed the kind of clean right-hand attack that has defined his career.
That sequence matters enormously for the Fury fight.
Fury has historically been difficult to hit cleanly because of his height, reach, awkward movement and ability to change rhythm. But recent evidence suggests that the veteran heavyweight is no longer operating at the same physical level he displayed earlier in his career.
Against Mariusz Wach in July, Fury earned a stoppage victory, but the performance also produced questions about his speed, conditioning and defensive sharpness.
For Joshua, that could be the opening.
Fury’s Size May No Longer Be Enough
For much of his career, Fury’s greatest advantage was his ability to combine enormous physical dimensions with surprisingly sophisticated boxing skills.
He could fight from distance.
He could jab.
He could lean on opponents.
He could switch between orthodox and southpaw positions.
He could absorb punishment and recover.
And, perhaps most importantly, he could make elite heavyweights fight at a pace and distance that suited him.
But age changes everything.
Fury is now approaching 38, while Joshua is 36. Both men are experienced veterans, and both have accumulated significant mileage during long professional careers.
Recent scouting analysis has suggested that Fury looked slower and more vulnerable during his victory over Wach, while Joshua’s fight with Prenga exposed concerns about his punch resistance.
That creates an unusual situation.
Instead of one younger heavyweight trying to dismantle an older champion, fans could be watching two former champions attempting to discover who has enough of his old form left to win one enormous final chapter.
The Vulnerability Joshua Must Attack
If there is one area Joshua could potentially exploit, it is Fury’s reaction to sustained pressure and clean straight punches.
Fury is not an easy target. His height and reach make him extremely difficult to attack directly.
But when Fury is forced backward without controlling the rhythm, his defensive structure can become less predictable.
That is where Joshua’s straight right becomes dangerous.
Joshua does not necessarily need to chase Fury around the ring.
In fact, doing so could be exactly the wrong strategy.
Instead, Joshua could attempt to control the center of the ring, establish his jab and force Fury to move laterally. Once Fury begins resetting, Joshua could look for the straight right through the middle.
This is where the Usyk blueprint becomes interesting.
Usyk repeatedly forced Fury to make defensive adjustments. He attacked the body, changed levels, moved at unusual angles and refused to allow Fury to settle comfortably.
Joshua does not possess Usyk’s footwork.
But he possesses something Usyk does not have at heavyweight: one-punch finishing power capable of changing the fight instantly.
That could make a similar tactical approach considerably more dangerous.
Why Joshua Cannot Simply Hunt for the Knockout
The biggest mistake Joshua could make would be believing that he has to knock Fury out from the opening bell.
Fury is too experienced for that.
If Joshua becomes desperate for the knockout, he could walk directly into Fury’s preferred style.
Fury has spent years frustrating aggressive heavyweights by using feints, clinches, long-range punches and awkward angles.
Joshua therefore needs patience.
The ideal scenario for Joshua may not involve a dramatic first-round assault.
Instead, he could spend the early rounds collecting information.
How does Fury react to the jab?
How quickly does Fury retreat?
Does Fury still have the ability to fight effectively while moving backward?
Can Fury maintain his pace after repeated body attacks?
How often does Fury lower his hands after throwing combinations?
Those questions could be more important than raw punching power.
Joshua’s Biggest Problem May Actually Be Joshua Himself
There is another side to this story that cannot be ignored.
While Fury has vulnerabilities, Joshua has vulnerabilities of his own.
His fight with Prenga was a major warning.
Joshua was dropped twice in the opening round before recovering to score the stoppage.
Against a fighter with Fury’s size, intelligence and experience, those defensive lapses could be catastrophic.
Fury does not need to land dozens of punches to change a fight.
If Joshua becomes predictable, Fury could use his jab to disrupt Joshua’s rhythm before attacking with longer combinations.
And if Joshua stands too upright, Fury can potentially use his physical size to make the fight uncomfortable at close range.
That means Joshua must walk a very narrow tactical line.
He needs to be aggressive enough to hurt Fury, but disciplined enough to avoid being trapped.
Fury Has His Own Knockout Threat
It would be a mistake to treat Fury as an aging fighter who simply needs to survive.
He remains a massive heavyweight with years of elite-level experience.
His victory over Wach was his second win of 2026 after returning from a lengthy period away from competition. Reuters reported that Fury stopped Wach after seven rounds in Thailand, using the fight as preparation for the anticipated Joshua showdown.
That experience matters.
Fury knows how to survive difficult moments.
He knows how to change tactics.
And he has already faced Joshua’s type of physical threat throughout his career.
Joshua, meanwhile, has never faced Fury in an official professional bout.
That makes preparation especially important.
The Psychological Battle Could Be Huge
The physical matchup is only half of the story.
The psychological element could be equally important.
Both men have spent years hearing that the fight should have happened earlier.
Now, finally, they appear to be approaching the moment.
But both arrive with questions.
Fury has suffered two defeats against Usyk.
Joshua has also been beaten twice by Usyk.
Both have experienced difficult moments.
Both have been questioned.
And both understand that this could represent the defining fight of the final phase of their careers.
That creates enormous pressure.
The first fighter who becomes emotionally impatient could lose control of the fight.
For Joshua, that may be particularly important.
If Fury survives Joshua’s best early attacks, Joshua cannot afford to panic.
He must continue boxing.
Why the Usyk Losses Could Actually Help Joshua
There is an intriguing argument that Joshua’s experiences against Usyk could ultimately make him better prepared for Fury.
Joshua has already spent 24 rounds attempting to solve one of the most difficult technical puzzles in modern heavyweight boxing.
Those fights exposed weaknesses.
But they also forced Joshua to develop.
He learned what it feels like to deal with elite movement.
He learned how difficult it is to cut off a smaller, faster heavyweight.
He learned the importance of maintaining his balance while attacking.
And he learned that chasing a technically superior opponent can be disastrous.
Those lessons could become valuable against Fury.
Joshua does not have to beat Fury the same way Usyk did.
He simply needs to understand why Usyk was successful and then translate those principles into his own style.
The Most Dangerous Scenario for Fury
Imagine a version of Joshua who does not rush.
He establishes the jab.
He attacks Fury’s body.
He refuses to follow Fury in straight lines.
He waits for Fury to reset.
Then, suddenly, Joshua steps forward with a perfectly timed right hand.
That is the scenario Fury must fear.
Because Joshua does not need to dominate every round to win.
He may only need one perfect sequence.
The recent Prenga fight demonstrated how quickly Joshua can recover from adversity and turn a dangerous situation into a knockout victory.
That finishing instinct remains one of his greatest weapons.
But Can Joshua Actually Knock Fury Out?
That is where prediction becomes speculation.
There is no reliable evidence that Joshua is guaranteed to exploit a specific weakness and knock Fury out.
Fury has never been stopped by a conventional heavyweight opponent in his professional career. His two defeats came against Usyk, both on the scorecards. Reuters also notes that those remain the only losses on Fury’s record.
So predicting a Joshua knockout should be presented as a plausible scenario, not a certainty.
The ingredients are nevertheless obvious.
Joshua has the power.
Fury has shown signs of decline.
Both men have become more vulnerable with age.
And both have recently produced performances that suggest the final fight could be considerably more competitive — and more chaotic — than their reputations might suggest.
The Bigger Question: Who Has More Left?
That may ultimately determine everything.
The old versions of Joshua and Fury were extraordinary heavyweight athletes.
But this is not 2018.
It is not 2020.
It is not even 2023.
This is the late stage of two long careers.
Joshua is coming off a fight in which he was twice knocked down before recovering.
Fury is coming off a victory over a 46-year-old opponent that secured another win but did not completely silence questions about his physical condition.
That makes the upcoming fight almost impossible to predict with certainty.
Final Verdict
The headline surrounding Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury may be about one fighter discovering another fighter’s weakness, but the reality is far more complicated.
Joshua does not need to become Usyk.
He needs to learn from what Usyk did.
The Ukrainian demonstrated that Fury can be forced into uncomfortable exchanges through movement, timing, pressure and tactical variety. Joshua possesses different tools, but his jab, straight right hand, body attack and finishing power could allow him to turn those lessons into a completely different threat.
At the same time, Joshua must solve his own defensive problems.
If the version of Joshua who appeared against Prenga shows up against Fury, he could be in serious danger.
If the version who recovered, remained composed and delivered the decisive right hand emerges instead, Fury could suddenly find himself in the most dangerous fight of his career.
That is what makes Joshua vs Fury so compelling.
It is no longer simply a battle between two undefeated British superstars who were once considered the future of heavyweight boxing.
It is a fight between two experienced former champions trying to prove that they still have one defining performance left.
And if Joshua really has discovered a tactical weakness in Fury, the most important question will not be whether he can find it.
It will be whether he can land the one clean punch that turns that weakness into a knockout.
For now, that remains a prediction rather than a fact.
But if the fight materializes as expected, it could become one of the most consequential heavyweight nights of 2026. Recent reporting indicates that the matchup remains on course despite continuing disagreement over the venue, with November among the reported target windows.
And that leaves boxing fans with one irresistible possibility: after years of waiting, Joshua and Fury may finally meet at exactly the moment when both are vulnerable enough for one punch to change everything.