Freddie Roach: Joshua Has Better Boxing Skills, But Fury Will Knock Him Out

Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach is a big fan of the current heavyweight champions, Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.

The two fighters are going to potentially collide in a two-fight series in 2021. A few months back, they agreed in principle on the financial aspects of the deal.

Joshua is back in the ring this coming Saturday night at the SSE Arena at Wembley, when he defends the WBO, IBO, IBF, WBA world titles against mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev.

If Joshua wins, he plans to move forward with finalizing a potential fight with Fury.

Fury has a hurdle of his own, with Deontay Wilder bringing forth a legal claim - as he attempts to enforce a rematch clause from their February encounter that Fury won by stoppage.

Roach views Joshua as being the better skilled boxer of the two - but he still expects the Gypsy King come away with the victory by way of knockout. The veteran coach assisted Fury in his December 2018 encounter with Wilder.

"Tyson Fury can be a beast in the ring and go right at you strong or he could come out as more of a boxer and out-box you," Roach told Marc Gatford of MyBettingSites.co.uk

"For this fight, I'd like to see him go out and pressure and batter Anthony Joshua.  Pressure him early and beat him up. He won't do it, but I would encourage him to fight in his natural southpaw stance.  He's a beast as a southpaw.  Joshua's best chance to win is by using his boxing skills since they are better than Tyson's.  Anthony must dictate the pace and stay off the ropes.  For both, distance will be important.  I think Tyson wins this one by knockout."