Fury vs Joshua Start Time, Undercard and Ringwalks: Britain's 1am Fight Night Explained

Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua is on Friday 11 December 2026 at Principality Stadium, Cardiff, live on Netflix. The main event ringwalks are planned for about 1am UK time, which means the two men will actually walk out in the early hours of Saturday 12 December. That timing is still waiting on a licence from Cardiff Council, and as of 2 November 2026 no undercard fight has been officially announced, although Dan Rafael reported on 30 October that a deal is agreed for Deontay Wilder vs Jai Opetaia to go on the card, though it is not yet signed.

Last updated: 2 November 2026.

So here is the strange bit. The biggest all-British heavyweight fight in a generation is being staged in Wales on a Friday, and it will finish when most of Cardiff is asleep. Ten years of waiting, and the bell rings after midnight. If you searched for Tyson Fury's next fight or Anthony Joshua's next fight, this is it. This guide pulls every confirmed fact into one place, flags the rumours honestly, and explains what a 1am fight actually means if you are planning to be in the building.

Principality Stadium seen from Westgate Street, Cardiff, 14/10/2022. Photo: Dominic Nelson, CC BY-SA 4.0

Fury vs Joshua at a glance

• Fight: Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua, 12 rounds, heavyweight.
• Date: Friday 11 December 2026, with the main event in the early hours of Saturday 12 December.
• Venue: Principality Stadium, Cardiff, with the roof closed.
• Main event ringwalks: about 1am UK time, subject to the licence change.
• Title: the vacant WBA "super" heavyweight title, as reported by The Ring.
• How to watch: live on Netflix worldwide, included for members at no extra cost.
• Records: Fury 36 wins, 2 losses, 1 draw (25 knockouts). Joshua 30 wins, 4 losses (27 knockouts).
• Undercard: not announced. The organisers say supporting bouts will be announced at a later date.

If you want the commercial side, our Fury vs Joshua event page is where hospitality for the night lives. The rest of this page is the fight itself.

What time is Fury vs Joshua? The UK start time and ringwalks

The short answer is about 1am UK time for the main event ringwalks, on the night of Friday 11 December into Saturday 12 December. That figure comes from the licensing application the stadium operator submitted to Cardiff Council, which Sky Sports reported on 8 October. A council spokesperson said the change was to allow the proposed Joshua vs Fury bout, with the ring walk commencing at 01:00.

No full running order has been published, and no time has been given for the first fight of the night. Big stadium cards usually open their doors in the early evening and run the undercard for several hours before the headline bout, so expect a long night rather than a quick one. We will add the confirmed timings here as soon as they are announced.

Why a Friday fight starts on Saturday morning

Follow the audience. Netflix is streaming the fight live to its members around the world, and 1am in Cardiff is 8pm on the East Coast of the United States and 5pm on the West Coast. That is Friday prime time in America, and Sky Sports reported that the 1am plan was chosen to suit peak viewing there.

Turki Alalshikh, who owns The Ring and announced the fight on 24 September, has built the whole show around a global broadcast. For a British crowd 1am is late, but it is not unusual. Plenty of big British fights abroad have been watched by UK fans in the middle of the night. The difference this time is that tens of thousands of them will be wide awake inside the stadium rather than on the sofa.

Fury vs Joshua ringwalk times around the world

Every time on this table moves if the UK ringwalk moves. Treat them as a planning guide, not a promise, until the broadcaster publishes its own schedule.

The Cardiff licence that decides the time

The stadium's current licence allows boxing until 1am. The application asks for a one-off extension so that boxing and wrestling can run until 3am on 12 December, with the venue open until 3.30am. It also asks to extend live music to 3am, for a short performance before the ringwalk. The operator described it as a very limited one-off occasion.

Here is how it works. The change has to be advertised for 28 consecutive days, including a notice at the stadium. If nobody makes a relevant objection, the council has to grant it. If someone does object, a hearing is held, and that hearing could add conditions or refuse the change. Public feedback closes on 3 November 2026. Council leader Chris Weaver has spoken warmly about the economic boost the fight brings to the city, but a council leader's enthusiasm is not a licensing decision. Until one is published, 1am is the plan rather than a promise.

Inside the Principality Stadium (then the Millennium Stadium) with the roof closed, Cardiff, 15/09/2007. Photo: Nick Richards, CC BY-SA 2.0

Eddie Hearn, Joshua's promoter, confirmed the date and city the day it was announced. Here he is making it official.

Fury vs Joshua undercard: who is fighting in Cardiff?

Nobody, officially. When the fight was announced on 24 September, the organisers promised a supporting card of big names and named none of them. Netflix still lists the undercard as to be announced. What exists is a queue of reported fights, and some are much firmer than others. Here is every one worth knowing about, with how solid it looks as of 2 November.

Deontay Wilder vs Jai Opetaia: the strongest rumour

This is the one with the most paperwork behind it, though still no signed contract. On 10 October, Dana White told Sky Sports that Jai Opetaia is more than likely going to be on the undercard. The same day, Boxing News reported that Wilder's manager, Shelly Finkel, had accepted an offer for Wilder to face Opetaia in the co-feature. Opetaia is an unbeaten cruiserweight, which makes a step up to face a man with 43 knockouts a genuinely odd and genuinely interesting fight.

We went deep on it in Wilder vs Opetaia: could the fight join the Fury vs Joshua card?, including the 26lb weight gap nobody else talks about. Deontay Wilder has his own profile too.

Rico Verhoeven: the man who says he was offered Wilder too

Just to muddy it, the former kickboxing champion Rico Verhoeven told talkSPORT that he had been offered a fight with Wilder for the same night and said yes. Two men accepting the same opponent for the same date is about the clearest sign you will get that nothing is signed. It also tells you who the fixed point is. Somebody badly wants Wilder in Cardiff.

Manny Pacquiao: claimed, then cooled

On 13 October, Bloody Elbow reported that Manny Pacquiao would compete on the card, a claim that rested on a social media post. Later reporting was more careful, and a report on 30 October described a Pacquiao fight with Joe Cordina as only a rumour. Pacquiao on a Cardiff bill would be a huge moment for the crowd. It is not confirmed.

The rest of the queue

World Boxing News listed eight bouts linked to the card, none confirmed. Among them:

• Filip Hrgovic vs Frank Sanchez, heavyweight.
• Richardson Hitchins vs Keyshawn Davis.
• Abdullah Mason vs Joe Cordina, with Cordina a Cardiff fighter who would have the crowd on his side.
• Frazer Clarke vs Joseph Parker, reported in late October as being in the works.
• Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez, floated as a possible addition with no opponent named.

A stadium card can only carry so many big fights before the main event slips later still, and a 1am headline already leaves little room. Some of these will fall away. For a sense of how stadium undercards come together, our high-profile undercard fights page collects them, and the usyk vs benavidez explainer covers the cruiserweight picture Opetaia is stepping out of.

Is Fury vs Joshua a world title fight?

Yes, according to The Ring, which first reported on 25 September that the fight is set to be for the vacant WBA "super" heavyweight title. Oleksandr Usyk gave up that belt in June. Frank Warren, Fury's promoter, said the WBA had sanctioned the bout as a world title fight.

Not everybody is happy. Murat Gassiev, who already holds the WBA's "regular" heavyweight title, has asked the sanctioning body for clarification, and Derek Chisora has said publicly that the WBA should not hand its vacant belt to two men who did not win it in the ring. The row matters to purists. On fight night, most of the stadium will be there for the rivalry, not the strap. Still, it means the winner walks out of Cardiff calling himself a world champion again, and both men have said that matters to them. Our world championship title fights page covers the belts in more detail, and Oleksandr Usyk is the man who left the door open.

Fury vs Joshua: how they arrive in Cardiff

Both men took a warm-up this summer, and both warm-ups told you something.

Tyson Fury: two wins and a kiss

Fury came back from retirement on 11 April 2026 and beat Arslanbek Makhmudov on a wide unanimous decision at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with scores of 120-108, 120-108 and 119-109. He called out Joshua straight afterwards. Then, on 24 July, he stopped Mariusz Wach at the Max Muay Thai Stadium in Pattaya, Thailand, when Wach's corner pulled him out after seven rounds. Fury kissed Wach during the fight, took no purse, and gave the ticket money to the Father Ray Foundation, a Pattaya charity. The WBC handed him its first Humanitarian Title for it. Peak Fury, really. His record is now 36 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw, with both defeats coming against Usyk in 2024. See the full story on our Tyson Fury page.

Anthony Joshua: down twice, then devastating

Joshua's warm-up was far more dramatic. On 25 July 2026, at the Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia, Kristian Prenga put him down twice in the first round. Joshua got up, regrouped, and stopped Prenga in the second. It was a night that showed both sides of him in six minutes: the vulnerability his critics point to, and the power that has finished 27 of his 30 wins. Fury went straight for it, questioning in July whether Joshua has the stomach for the fight after that wobbly night in Jeddah. Joshua has chosen his moments rather than trading insults. His career is on our Anthony Joshua page.

For the full side-by-side, from height and reach to every common opponent, read the Joshua vs Fury tale of the tape.

Anthony Joshua at the press conference for his rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr, New York, 05/09/2019. Photo: JazzyJoeyD, CC BY-SA 4.0

The trash talk so far: a Rolex, a black eye and a pint of Guinness

Anyone expecting ten years of frustration to boil over at the launch press conference was disappointed. Fury and Joshua faced off for the first time at the British Airways ARC at Olympia, in west London, on 30 September, and the mood was closer to two old rivals ribbing each other at a wedding. Reuters reported that Joshua told the one reporter who tried to ask a question from the floor that there would be no journalists.

Fury, recalling an old encounter, said: "I left that building with a Rolex on." Joshua, in dark glasses and a white T-shirt, added that Fury had also left with a black eye. Fury then invited him for a pint of Guinness after the fight. Joshua's line on the night was simply: "This is the energy that we want."

Then the body language people got involved. A body language analyst told Sherdog that Fury looked nervous, pointing to him standing on his toes, flexing his fingers and chewing while he spoke, while Joshua appeared calm throughout. Take that with as much salt as you like. Fury has made a career out of looking unbothered while being extremely bothered, and the other way round.

The full launch press conference, as Netflix streamed it:

How to watch Fury vs Joshua in the UK

Fury vs Joshua is live on Netflix, worldwide, and included for Netflix members at no extra cost. For a British heavyweight fight of this size, that is a real change in how the country watches. You watch it on the Netflix app on a smart TV, phone, tablet, games console or laptop, the same way you would watch anything else on the service.

Two practical points for watching at home. First, the main event is planned for about 1am, so if you want the ringwalks live, plan for a very late Friday. Second, Netflix has streamed live boxing before, but a fight with a global audience this big will put any stream under pressure. If you are hosting, test your connection early in the evening rather than at 12.55am.

Fight night in Cardiff: planning a 1am main event

This is the part nobody else is writing about, and it is the part that matters most if you are going. A headline bout at 1am changes the whole shape of the evening, especially for a group or a client night out.

The stadium is in the middle of the city

Principality Stadium sits right in the centre of Cardiff, beside the River Taff and a short walk from Cardiff Central station and the main shopping streets. That is the good news for a late finish: the hotels, restaurants and bars are close by, and nobody needs a long journey to get in. The roof will be closed for the fight, so the weather in Cardiff in December is not part of the plan. More on the ground is on our Principality Stadium page.

Principality Stadium and the riverside walkway on the River Taff, Cardiff, 19/05/2018. Photo: Jeremy Segrott, CC BY 2.0

Think of it as two evenings, not one

A sensible way to plan a 1am main event is to split the night. The early part, with dinner and the first undercard fights, works like any big night out. The second part, from the co-feature through to the headline bout, is the reason everyone came. If the licence goes through as applied for, the venue stays open until 3.30am. That makes an overnight stay in Cardiff the obvious choice for anyone travelling in, rather than trying to get home in the small hours.

Cardiff Central railway station, a short walk from the stadium, 10/04/2016. Photo: Jeremy Segrott, CC BY 2.0

What it means for corporate guests

For client entertaining, the late finish is not a problem so much as a design brief. Fight-night hospitality usually means a lounge to use before the boxing and during the undercard, which turns a long night into a comfortable one rather than hours in a seat. It also gives hosts plenty of time to talk business before the noise starts. Saturday morning is free, which suits guests who have travelled. Our major boxing fights page explains how boxing hospitality is structured across the big nights.

Cardiff Castle keep with Christmas market huts going up, Cardiff, 12/11/2022. Photo: Dominic Nelson, CC BY-SA 4.0

Joshua's Cardiff history: the city has done this before

This is not Joshua's first stadium night in Cardiff, and both previous visits are worth remembering.

On 28 October 2017 he defended his world titles against Carlos Takam at the same stadium. Takam was not even the planned opponent. Kubrat Pulev was, until an injury less than two weeks out, and Eddie Hearn said Takam, kept on standby, stepped in at 12 days' notice. That is a useful reminder for anyone treating the current undercard rumours as settled. Cards change late.

Joshua was back on 31 March 2018 to beat Joseph Parker on points and add the WBO belt to his collection. If the reported Frazer Clarke vs Parker fight does land on this card, Parker would be returning to the scene of his first professional defeat. Boxing loves a symmetry like that.

Fury, meanwhile, has spent years calling Joshua out from rings all over the world, and finally getting him into one in Wales has a certain poetry to it. It is the first time the two have met as professionals.

What happens next: the dates to watch

Between now and fight night, these are the moments that will change this page:

• 3 November 2026: public feedback on the Cardiff licence change closes. A hearing follows only if objections are made.
• The undercard announcement, which has no date yet. Wilder's opponent is the first thing to watch for.
• The official running order and broadcast schedule, usually published in fight week.
• The weigh-in, expected in fight week, with the details still to be confirmed.
• Friday 11 December: fight night, with the main event planned for about 1am on Saturday 12 December.

We will update the times, the undercard and the licence position on this page as each one is confirmed. For the bigger picture of what is coming up in the sport, the boxing section collects every fight we cover, and how big fight tickets go on sale explains how releases work for nights like this. If any of the jargon in the build-up loses you, try our guide to common boxing terms new fans hear ringside.

Fury vs Joshua hospitality

Hospitality turns a 1am fight into a night that works for guests: a lounge for the long build-up, dining before the main event and a reserved seat for the ringwalks. To register your interest in Fury vs Joshua hospitality for a group or a client night, head to our Fury vs Joshua event page or talk to our team, who handle every boxing booking directly.

Photo credits: Dominic Nelson (Principality Stadium from Westgate Street; Cardiff Castle keep), CC BY-SA 4.0. Nick Richards (stadium interior, roof closed), CC BY-SA 2.0. JazzyJoeyD (Anthony Joshua press conference), CC BY-SA 4.0. Jeremy Segrott (stadium from the River Taff; Cardiff Central station), CC BY 2.0. Seth Whales (Joshua v Takam fight night), CC BY-SA 4.0. All via Wikimedia Commons.