The two days which could make or break Fury-AJ - Published After more than a decade of posturing and power struggles - a soap opera of warring promoters, shifting managers, fractured television deals and failed negotiations - it has finally come down to this. The biggest fight in British boxing history - Tyson Fury versus Anthony Joshua - hangs on one final two-day stretch. On Friday, Fury, 37, fights Mariusz Wach in the unlikely surroundings of Pattaya, Thailand.

There is no broadcaster, only a modest crowd expected and a 46-year-old opponent. The following evening, almost 4,000 miles away in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Joshua returns against Kristian Prenga - an Albanian knockout artist whom even the most hardened boxing fans would struggle to pick out of a line-up. If all goes to plan, Fury will leave Thailand within hours of beating Wach, board a private jet and fly to Saudi Arabia, where he is expected to climb through the ropes and finally stand face-to-face with Joshua.

The contracts are signed but, especially in boxing, the ink is never truly dry until the opening bell rings. - Fury lighter than opponent for first time in 15 years - Published20 hours ago - Pre-fight Joshua not ready for death of friends to sink in - Published1 day ago - 'Would Beckham do it?' - Fury stands by Thailand fight - Published1 day ago Why Joshua needed this warm-up fight Fury and Joshua, 36, have defined British heavyweight boxing for more than a decade without ever sharing a professional ring. Yet they arrive at this moment for very different reasons.

For Joshua, it is about far more than shaking off ring rust. The two-time world champion has not fought since surviving the car crash in Nigeria last December that claimed the lives of close friends Sina Ghami and Latif "Latz" Ayodele. Joshua has spoken about the emotional toll of the tragedy.

Promoter Eddie Hearn believes boxing has "saved" Joshua - just as it did when he first took up the sport as a troubled 19-year-old searching for direction. "When you come off an incident like that and an accident like that, I guess people say, 'Will you ever be the same?' Certainly everything he's shown in training camp, after he went through all the near-impossible work to get himself in that position, shows that he is," Hearn told BBC Sport. "The questions that you ask yourself, the moments where your head hits the pillow at night and it's just you in your room, what's going on inside between those two ears?" There was also the physical recovery.

"In the early stages, just a slight movement in bed would be excruciating pain," Hearn said. "To getting back on the bike and doing two hours' cycling when he couldn't move his upper body, and going through the physio sessions, that was an incredible journey." Fury's warm-up about publicity, not preparation Fury, who briefly retired after back-to-back defeats by Oleksandr Usyk, already had the comeback fight many felt he needed when comfortably outpointing Arslanbek Makhmudov in April. BBC boxing pundit Steve Bunce is not convinced another outing was necessary.

"The fight against Makhmudov was perfect, it was the dream fight for a fighter after a long break," Bunce says.