Fury quitting could KO Anthony Joshua’s career too – so what’s next for the man who made heavyweight boxing great again?

ANTHONY JOSHUA’S hard-earned bon voyage to boxing being snatched away by Tyson Fury’s latest retirement feels like the most unsatisfying ending to a glorious sporting story. Just days after the 35-year-old Watford legend vowed to hunt the Gypsy King down at the January 11 Ring Magazine awards, the Morecambe giant announced he was hanging up his gloves… again. Just as AJ cheerleader-in-chief Eddie Hearn announced he had reserved Wembley for the biggest fight in British boxing history, Fury pulled the plug.

The decision won’t do Fury’s resume any harm. He got to Wladimir Klitschko 18 months before Joshua and he got to Deontay Wilder on three brilliant occasions, compared to AJ’s zero. And he held his own in a couple of Oleksandr Usyk defeats, making a close contest of the first, whereas AJ was dominated over both of his clashes with the Ukrainian master. After 15 years of heavyweight magnificence, it seems criminal that Joshua fans must now settle for a slugfest with Wilder diehards over who was the third best big man of their era.

Especially when it seemed set in stone that Joshua and Fury would finally meet, over two stupendously-rich fights in Riyadh and London, and leave nobody in any doubt who the best Brit giant is since Lennox Lewis. Both men need redemption, both giants want to be big again after little Usyk belittled their size and abilities with four masterful performances and zero trash talk. If Fury has - and we are not buying it - walked away from the sport, and the £500million two-fight deal, then it leaves Our AJ with a problem.

Joshua missed the Wilder boat and he was sunk by Usyk’s genius. Fury was his chance to get up back to the surface for air and potentially sail off into the sunset. He once told us that - in the middle of his bad boy days when he was saved from a serious stretch inside - he chose to treat his boxing career like a prison sentence. He was going to eat, sleep, train and fight when and where he was told to.

He was going to lose, sacrifice and yearn for the things that normal people take for granted. So that when he finished his time, he could become a free man and reap the rewards of his gruelling solitude at the deep end of the hardest sport. After a couple of failed appearances at the parole board, a possible legacy-defining win over Fury looked like his last real crack at a decent farewell strategy. But if Fury has beaten him to the exit and vanished with an earlier and more respected Klitschko win - plus the three sensational Wilder bouts - then he can lay claim to being the finest British heavyweight of his era, the UK’s greatest since Lewis.

And what of second-placed Joshua?. Does he plod on with high-risk-low-reward opponents who will target his frail confidence and chin like Daniel Dubois did with such devastating success?. Or does he hang his gloves up too and go out on the back of a savage knockout that might itself end up cruelly defining a life and career worthy of so much more respect?. We shall wait and see. Joshua has paid his dues and served his time to King and country.

He deserves to walk out on his terms, to a roaring crowd that appreciates him and his underdog achievements. But while it has been an honour to cover his many high and lows in the ring, the finest story Fleet Street has on Anthony Joshua is one we can never write. It’s not a scandal or a cover-up or wrapped up in a non-disclosure agreement. It’s an act of utterly selfless kindness that he only agreed to do if we didn’t use it to flog a few more papers.

With his exploits with the gloves on - his 2011 World Championships silver in Baku, London 2012 gold and two title reigns - he has got us jobs, earned us pay rises, helped us get mortgages and raise our children. But the handful of hacks who traipse around the country - and in and out of Saudi - won’t print the moment away from the ropes that endeared him to us forever. Because he asked us to. Robbing AJ of that final fight will be a stroke of evil genius from the mind-games master.

In a sport utterly built on hype and blags and bulls**t, he swore to secrecy the very people who could best celebrate his kindest deed. It’s what has always made it hard to report on his failings in the ring - but also why we will never let anyone question the integrity of the man away from it. It’s why most of us, like his legions of fans around the world, will feel gutted if the overdue Fury fight - after years of Gypsy-King torment and the savage September Dubois knockout - doesn’t materialise.

For Team Fury, robbing AJ of that one huge final fight - one that made him break with protocol and admit publicly how much he needs it - will be a stroke of evil genius from the mind-games master. But it will leave Joshua trapped between a rock and a hard punch, having to choose between  a couple of underwhelming opponents he would be expected to beat, like Joe Joyce or Lawrence Okolie. Or fed to younger, hungrier, fresher predators like Fabio Wardley and Moses Itauma.