Andy Lee predicts Tyson Fury would stop Anthony Joshua in eight rounds

Andy Lee, the former middleweight titleholder who now works as part of WBC and LINEAL!!!!!!! heavyweight champ Tyson Fury’s team, thinks Fury would stop Anthony Joshua if that fight comes about sometime, which it could next year.

Lee told the Sky Boxing Show that Joshua doesn’t have the mental toughness of Fury.

“I think he’s still an improving fighter. I think he showed huge improvement to beat Andy Ruiz,” Lee said. “I think (he has) a little bit of inexperience, and I think mentally he’s not as strong as Tyson. Emanuel always said, ‘Champions are built on the inside.’ I can see Tyson — I think Tyson would beat him in eight rounds.”

The idea that Joshua, at 30, is still improving would be quite a backhanded compliment for most lower weight fighters, but heavyweights are a different story and I don’t think Lee means any passive-aggressive disrespect here at all.

Wladimir Klitschko, for a recent example, didn’t really start peaking until he was into his 30s; at 30, he was regaining a title from Chris Byrd after suffering some setbacks and getting his game right with Emanuel Steward, and he had another near decade before anyone (in this case Tyson Fury) knocked him off again.

“I like Anthony Joshua. I think he’s a great fighter and a great champion, but I think he’s a little bit experienced,” Lee continued. “I still think it’s a great fight and a great matchup and it’s the only real matchup in the heavyweight division left for both guys. But I think Tyson wins in a similar fashion to what he did to Wilder.”

As of now, while some very preliminary location scouting has been done, Fury-Joshua is not on the table. Fury (30-0-1, 21 KO) owes Deontay Wilder a third fight, and that’s signed and ready to go at some point, while Joshua (23-1, 21 KO) has to deal with his own signed fight, a bout with IBF mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev.