Date officially confirmed, venue locked in, hotels booked. The biggest fight in British boxing history over the line and rapidly approaching.

Instead, after two “semi-final” fights across one 24-hour period in two different countries, we are left with perhaps more questions than answers on the state of Anthony Joshua against Tyson Fury.

Normally, at this point in the post-mortem of any big event, there would be space for a “What We Learned” listicle. But as this column gazes out across the wreckage of the Pattaya-Jeddah double, it feels more appropriate to do the exact opposite. So here we go…

This one is always difficult to answer at the best of times, but following his post-Makhmudov display, when he picked up the mic and turned directly to Joshua at ringside, all the Fury noise from across this week was worryingly curious in contrast. In one interview, when asked whether he will fight Joshua once Mariusz Wach is out of the way, Fury said: “don’t hold your breath”. Perhaps this is his usual posturing, or an attempt at mind games, but surely we are past that now the contracts are supposedly signed.

Then, even more alarmingly, he was not ringside in Jeddah to watch AJ beat Kristian Prenga. Had he hopped on a flight from Thailand to Saudi Arabia, he would have helped deliver the head-to-head photo opp to officially kick-off the build-up to The Big One. The only thing he has done is make the whole thing seem less likely than it was before the pair boxed.

But, of course, this is classic Fury. One former coach of his once told me he would genuinely have no idea what the "Gypsy King" would do next. They would be talking about their plans for the next fight in the gym during their morning session only for Fury to head off for lunch and upload a retirement video to Instagram.

On the face of it, Joshua KO2 Prenga is near enough what everyone expected but that result, of course, does not tell the whole story. He was hurt badly in that first round and nearly stopped. Promoter Eddie Hearn admitted he had thought it was all over, and not just the fight but the AJ story in general.

The two-time world heavyweight champion came roaring back and did what was expected of him in the second round but that nightmare first should not be downplayed. Before Prenga, his last meaningful fight was a crushing knockout defeat to Daniel Dubois. Since then he struggled to pin down former Youtuber Jake Paul in their fight before his involvement in the car crash which killed two of his closest friends.

So Saturday’s fight in Jeddah was supposed to tell us what this new, different version of Joshua was really like. What we got instead was a Jekyll and Hyde performance which proved his usual knockout power but underlined his vulnerability. Since Saturday, Carl Froch has urged him to retire immediately while coach Dave Coldwell described him as “shot to bits”. Ultimately, opinions won’t matter to Joshua but they may matter to the public demand for Fury-AJ.

When Fury faced the media in the aftermath of his comeback victory over Arslanbek Makhmudov in April, he made it abundantly clear that Joshua was the only fight he wanted.

At one point he even said he would retire again unless it was Joshua next. Meanwhile, Joshua said he was well up for fighting Fury but would need a comeback fight first, given his activity levels and personal tragedy. At that point, Fury decided he might as well box again, too, which is where Wach came into the equation.

But now both of those are out of the way, and with nowhere else to turn but towards each other, they are not exactly screaming for it. There is always an element of brinkmanship in fights like this, like a game of chicken, neither wants to look like the desperate one.

Since we are way too far down the road for any of that, maybe they don’t actually want to fight each other next. There are already some noises about nudging this one into 2027, but with the public interest already on the wane, that is a dangerous game.

Which brings us nicely onto this one. There is no question that Joshua and Fury should have fought each other by now. In truth, we should have had a trilogy sewn up, too.

That is not how boxing works these days, particularly in Britain and particularly at heavyweight which means they will now fight each other for the first time deep into their 30s. There are some who have suggested that the action from Pattaya and Jeddah has proved that this fight is simply overcooked.

There have been comparisons to the 2022 showdown between Kell Brook and Amir Khan, the last Great British rivalry, which sent them both into retirement. Brook won via sixth-round stoppage but the feeling afterwards was almost as if it didn’t count and that the fight didn’t actually settle anything given how far past their peaks both men were. I tend to disagree that Joshua-Fury is there yet, although neither covered themselves in glory at the semi-final stage. The back-and-forth may be turning many fans, both hardcore and casual, off but once this fight is announced and the pair clash at the first official press conference, it will be all systems go again. 

This is still the question that hangs over the fight most heavily. We all saw Tony Bellew and Eddie Hearn arguing about why it should take place in Britain while there are reports that the location differs in both contracts.

Turki Alalshikh has appealed to the British government to allow Wembley a later license in order to secure a start time which better appeals to a worldwide audience while it has been reported that New York’s Madison Square Garden is the “frontrunner” to stage the fight.

Let’s not forget that tax implications might be important to the fighters in question given that their earnings, however large they may be, will be hugely affected by the fight’s location. Most of us in Britain are hoping that it lands here, given the cultural significance of the fight, but given they have just boxed in Thailand and Saudi Arabia, these two are both accustomed to heading overseas when necessary.

In fact, none of the six most important fights of Fury’s career—against Wladimir Klitschko, his trilogy with Deontay Wilder and his back-to-back showdowns with Oleksandr Usyk—took place in Britain. Anyway, the point is, despite both men winning at the weekend, there is still work to be done on the venue.