Tyson Fury has launched a scathing attack on Ben Davison after discovering that Anthony Joshua has brought the trainer into his camp for their December 11 showdown at the Principality Stadium, saying the move tells him everything he needs to know about his old rival’s state of mind going into the biggest fight of his career. “He left Ben Davison for a reason, now he’s gone back begging him to train him,” Fury said. “Mentally weak is what I see.”
Davison, who guided Fury through his comeback from mental health issues and his first fight with Deontay Wilder in 2018, has worked informally with Joshua for several camps already despite not being his lead trainer. Eddie Hearn confirmed this week that Davison will now take a formal role in the build-up to Cardiff, saying he has “always been, even when Ben wasn’t his principal trainer, working with him strategically, talking all the time.” Hearn added that the appeal is obvious given Davison’s insider knowledge of Fury. “There’s probably a feeling that Ben Davison knows Tyson Fury extremely well,” he said. “Ben Davison will definitely be involved in that camp and that process.”
Fury Calls Davison a “Career Killer”
Fury was not about to let the news pass quietly. Speaking ahead of the pair’s press commitments this week, he reminded people that he was the one who walked away from Davison in favour of Sugar Hill Steward, and suggested Joshua had made the same call once already.
“Remember I left Ben Davison to go with Sugar Hill because he wasn’t good enough, and this is the same Ben Davison who Anthony Joshua left in 2024 because he wasn’t good enough,” Fury said. He went further, pointing to Davison’s recent split from heavyweight prospect Moses Itauma after Itauma’s points loss to Filip Hrgović in their vacant IBF title fight. “This is also the same Ben Davison that just cost a billion-dollar athlete his career, let’s not forget that,” Fury added, before predicting how he expects the Cardiff fight to play out. “Joshua will probably go out there, get told to throw a jab and throw an uppercut and get himself chinned.”
Why Joshua Sees It Differently
Joshua’s camp has pushed back on the idea that hiring Davison is a sign of panic, framing it instead as a calculated move to get a coach into camp who has already spent years studying Fury’s habits, tendencies and temperament up close. With Peter Fury, Tyson’s own uncle, also reported to be assisting Joshua’s preparation, the Londoner is assembling a corner built almost entirely around people who know his opponent better than almost anyone else in boxing. For a fighter who has lost two of his last five fights, most recently a chastening second-round knockdown before he stopped Kristian Prenga in July, leaving no stone unturned looks less like weakness and more like necessity.
A Fight With No Way Back
The needle has been sharpened further by confirmation that the Fury-Joshua contract contains no rematch clause. This is a genuine one-off. Fury’s manager, Spencer Brown, was blunt about what that means for the two heavyweights involved. “Contractually, there’s one fight. There’s one big fight. It was designed for that,” Brown said. “Whoever loses here, where do they go? That’s a tough one.” Hearn echoed the sentiment, framing it as the reason both men will leave nothing in the tank. “No rematch clause. It’s one fight, one-off,” he said, adding that a second meeting would only ever happen as a fresh deal struck from scratch rather than a contractual follow-on. “If it’s a blockbuster, I’m sure they’ll do it again.”
That dynamic changes the calculus for both corners. Fury’s team has already made clear that a win sets up a pursuit of Oleksandr Usyk, while a loss for either man at this stage of their careers would leave retirement as the most likely next step. It is that context, as much as anything said in the build-up, that explains why both camps are treating the choice of trainer as seriously as they are.
What Happens Next
Tickets for the December 11 clash go on general sale on 9 October, with the Principality Stadium expected to be at or close to capacity for what is being billed as the long-awaited domestic resolution both fighters have circled for years. Davison’s exact responsibilities within Joshua’s camp, and how much of the Cardiff build-up Peter Fury will oversee alongside him, are expected to become clearer once formal training footage and media access begin in the coming weeks.
