Fury and Joshua- the big showdown this year.

 Fury and Joshua - the big showdown this year.

Boxing loves its big occasions, those spectacular bouts of blood and sweat, head-to- head encounters where thick, muscular boxers with washboard flat stomachs go hell for leather in a determined effort to regain heavyweight belts and then spit poison at their opponent before the ring bells. You must have seen it by now. They square up to each other with fists brandished and violent hatred in their eyes. Of course it's showmanship and excellent publicity for both promoters and the thousands of media outlets watching their every move. 

Once again the names of Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury will always drop into pre-fight conversations. For as long as any of us can remember boxers have known exactly how to talk a good fight. They'll eye ball each other for seemingly ages, threaten to murder each other on the spot while privately knowing that such bravado is bound to backfire on both. But TV can't get enough of the cocky rhetoric, the small talk, the boastful statements and the verbal grandstanding from both camps as they seek destruction, the ultimate knock out and lights going out. It remains one of the most compelling reasons for watching boxing. 

Of course we are familiar with the old flannel, the provoking and goading, the nastiness and the bloodthirsty brutality. When Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali, Ali would conduct most of his interviews in the ring, sparring and dancing, jumping and skipping, floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee. He would bite his teeth together, grin fixed firmly, sneering theatrically, snarling ferociously and then breaking into the kind of routine that would have packed a thousand comedy clubs. 

When Ali was busy engaging the likes of Joe Frazier and George Foreman, it was rather like following a travelling circus. We would all watch in stunned amazement as a blizzard of fists from Ali would almost invariably become the precursor to savage maulings. Ali would wave his arms around like windmills, hurling insults at his closest rivals, calling their bluff, psyching them out, amusingly humiliating them and then dismissing them with a bold announcement about the number of the round the fight would stop. 

And once again Joshua and Fury find themselves within easy target range. Joshua is the clever manipulator, the man who will simply let his boxing speak on his behalf. Joshua, you feel sure, will have nothing but praise and flattery for whoever he fights. He will avoid though the posturing and the preening, the oaths and gestures, the potty predictions and the dishonourable intentions on the night. There is a very real air of shrewdness about Joshua, a man of understatement who clearly won't be drawn into making comments he may learn to regret. 

Fury, for his part, is infinitely more controversial. a man used to the spotlight and embracing it fully. Fury is already notorious for his thoughts on women, homosexuality and religion. You may not like what you hear from his mouth but it's uncompromisingly Fury. He means it quite categorically. And yet Ali was the one who avoided being drafted into service to be ready for Vietnam so the life of a boxer is clearly not as straightforward as some would have us believe. 

During the 1950s and 1960s, Britain's Henry Cooper became such a well-established household name that when the boxing career had to be halted the advertising agencies would have a field day. During the 1970 a famous after- shave lotion would heighten awareness of Cooper's commercial value. Cooper would splash it all over and the world of boxing could only watch in admiration as Our 'Enry' would capture the imagination of the after-dinner circuit and a thousand chat shows. 

And so it is that Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury will now be preparing for a year that they hope will culminate in handsome victory. Of course we have been here before. Frank Bruno, who became one of the most endearing figures in world boxing, once tried desperately to outwit Mike Tyson and then found he was fighting a lost cause. Lennox Lewis, both Canadian and British, was well intentioned, brave and heroic for a while at least while the rest of the courageous bruisers almost grabbed heavyweight belts but were never quite up to the onerous task. Watch this space for further developments in the Joshua and Fury series of mind games.  Be ready for yet more exaggerated hype.