As of now, before the two men have had the opportunity to settle it in the ring, who has had the best career?

Derek Chisora, for instance, is a long-term friend of “AJ," his fellow Finchley ABC alumni. He does pick Joshua to win in Cardiff but says, overall, Fury is the best British heavyweight of the era.

Then, on the other hand, are those like Luke Campbell. The 39-year-old spent years training alongside both of them as an amateur and followed their careers closely thereafter. For him, Joshua should be considered his generation’s No. 1 thanks to his Olympic gold medal and deeper resume as a pro.

As with any debate of this nature, it is best to start with the basic facts. Joshua, 36, has had 34 professional fights since he turned over in 2013, split 30-4, with 27 KOs, giving him a 90% KO ratio.

Fury, 38, is a veteran of 39 fights split 36-2-1, with 25 KOs (69.4%). Given that David Price got the nod for Team GB at the 2008 Olympics, Fury turned over much earlier than Joshua and has been a professional for nearly 18 years now.

Joshua, who picked up the sport far later in life, made a quick impression as an amateur and leapfrogged Frazer Clarke to qualify at London 2012.

Although he was on the right end of some controversial decisions that summer, he emerged from the tournament with gold, becoming one of only 10 Olympic super heavyweight champions in history. The fact he did it in London, at a Games that captured the public’s imagination like no other, will also influence this argument later on.

But back to Fury, who won the senior ABAs in 2008 but decided to turn professional rather than stake a claim for that spot in London. There were high hopes for him back then, but he turned over with nothing like the fanfare greeting Joshua a few years later.

Detractors are always quick to point out that John McDermott should have got the nod when they met for the English heavyweight title in September 2009, but referee Terry O’Connor made Fury a 98-92 winner. The “Gypsy King” would leave nothing to chance in their rematch nine months later, winning via stoppage in the ninth.

After that, he ticked all the usual boxes on his way up: British, Commonwealth and European titles before the fight that stands alone as the most impressive on either resume in question.

Wladimir Klitschko had not lost for more than 11 years before Fury turned up in Dusseldorf, Germany to relieve him of his Ring, WBO, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles and usher in a new era for the division. There is an argument that it remains the greatest win of any active boxer.

Of course, a near three-year period in exile followed, and precisely that absence opened the door for Joshua to stake his own claim as the era’s best British heavyweight.

The popular Londoner also claimed British and Commonwealth titles on his climb toward the top of the division and got his first world title crack in April 2016. The IBF belt, which had been almost immediately relinquished by Fury, found its way to Charles Martin, who won the vacant belt in January 2016.

In only his 16th fight, Joshua crushed Martin inside two rounds to become Britain’s latest world heavyweight champion. The victory launched him into a new league commercially, and his star would rise steadily with two clinical defenses against Dominic Breazeale (TKO7) and Eric Molina (TKO3) to finish out the year.

Thereafter, things went into hyperdrive.

In the 17 months from April 2017 until September 2018, Joshua would fight four times, all at stadiums, all attracting around 80,000 at the gate. About a third of a million people bought tickets to see Joshua over the course of his victories against Klitschko at Wembley, Carlos Takam and Joseph Parker in Cardiff and Povetkin back at Wembley.

Three of those ended in stoppage victories while the points win over Parker would also earn him the WBO heavyweight title.

While Fury beat Klitschko to win the belts, and would later beat Deontay Wilder as a challenger to claim The Ring and WBC belts, the 6-foot-9 Englishman has never won a unification fight. Joshua has.

When assessing Joshua’s credentials as the best of his era, that 17-month spell is clearly the prime real estate. Disaster struck for him against Andy Ruiz in New York one June night in 2019 but he did have his revenge in the rematch, again something Fury has never done.

Joshua would then surrender his belts to Oleksandr Usyk in September 2021 and fail to reclaim them in the return 11 months later. Then, we cannot forget the crushing nature of his knockout defeat to Daniel Dubois at Wembley in September 2024.

Some would argue that Joshua’s legacy is defined more by his defeats than by his victories but there is a general under-appreciation of what “AJ” has done for the sport in this country overall. That gold in London was the launchpad for the sort of superstardom not usually reserved for British boxers.

You could also argue that Fury, for all his success, has never been adored in the same way that Joshua has. But he would point to his smash hit Netflix series "At Home With The Furys" as evidence of a proper crossover star.

His $100 million deal with Top Rank in 2019 also ensured that Fury could reach across the Atlantic in a way that Joshua perhaps never has.

And in the ring? That Klitschko win is the most significant victory on either record while his two victories over Wilder, in 2020 and then 2021, also stand out. The first of those, in particular, was an all-timer given the way in which Fury ripped through a man who had never lost in 43 professional outings.

Their back-and-forth war in Las Vegas 20 months later was more thrilling and highlighted Fury’s ability to get up from just about anything and still win.

And while Joshua deserves huge credit for that run of four straight stadium fights, let’s not forget that thousands packed into Wembley and then Tottenham to watch Fury against Dillian Whyte and Chisora in clashes nobody expected him to lose. They were evidence of Fury’s huge pulling power, too.

Then, just as Joshua did, Fury would lose back-to-back fights with Usyk, so the pair are neck-and-neck on that one. However, there was a stark contrast in how they handled their most recent common opponent, Francis Ngannou.

The MMA legend dropped Fury in their Riyadh Season clash in October 2023 and was unlucky to be on the end of a split decision defeat. Then five months later, he was obliterated by Joshua inside two rounds without managing to land anything of note himself.

So based on all of that, who is the top dog? On wins and resume alone, you could argue that his dethroning of Klitschko and complete assault of Wilder means Fury’s resume pips Joshua. But then on overall body of work, consistency (Joshua has zero retirements to Fury’s five) and cultural impact, Joshua has had the better career.

Regardless of which side of the fence you land on, you cannot deny that all of the above can be influenced at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on December 11.

They may be fighting for millions of pounds but are also fighting to prevent irreversible damage to a pair of incredible legacies.