What time will Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua start in the UK and Ireland as Spencer Brown hints at earlier fight time

After years of speculation, we are finally set to witness British heavyweight boxing behemoths Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua trading leather.

Eddie Hearn recently hinted that an announcement was imminent, and just a few days later, the news we had all been clamouring for was at long last delivered.

Speculation has been rife over the past few weeks as to where the fight would ultimately take place, and it's Cardiff's Principality Stadium that has won the battle.

New York City's iconic Madison Square Garden looked to be the front runner until Anthony Joshua and his Matchroom promoter Hearn refused to undertake the scrap anywhere other than on British soil.

Their stance led to an impasse, but thankfully, common ground was reached between all the relevant parties, meaning the biggest boxing match in a generation can now be staged.

There is one big caveat to the fight taking place in the United Kingdom however, and that comes in the shape of the expected fight time.

But what time can we expect to finally witness Fury and Joshua trade blows? Find out below...

What time will Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua start?

It was always likely that a fight between the pair on home soil would mean a significantly later start time than normal.

Typically, headline bouts in Britain tend to get underway between 22:00 and 23:00 (local time), but given the pulling power of this fight, Netflix were determined to reach as large a global audience as possible.

An 02:00 (GMT) start time was initially expected, with Sky Sports' Boxing reporter Andy Scott delivering the following update shortly after official confirmation of the clash was made.

"Eddie Hearn and Anthony Joshua have been incredibly keen to ensure the British public that they were digging their heels in and doing all they could to ensure this fight took place in the UK," he said on Sky Sports News.

"We have got to cater for a US audience, there's no doubt about that, so a 2am start makes a lot of sense -- and let's not remember this isn't something unique, we saw it previously in Cardiff when Joe Calzaghe fought Mikkel Kessler in that same arena.

"The fight is taking place in December, the venue has a roof and it is one of the great boxing cities in the world, so all-in-all I think we should all be very happy that a deal has been done, even if it does mean, as expected, a 2am fight time."

He added: "It hasn't been officially confirmed as of yet, but it is widely assumed that it will be a 2am, or close to that time, start for viewers in the UK."

However, since then, it's come to light that Fury and his team are working hard to bring the start time forward an hour or two to appease the British public.

"I think 2am is far too late," the Gypsy King's manager Spencer Brown told Playbook Boxing this week.

"I think that the general public in England will want to watch it in the pubs, the clubs, you know, around each other’s houses.

"There’ll be a party atmosphere. And I just think it needs to be earlier. Simple as that.

"It’s all in negotiation at the moment but we think it shouldn’t be at 2am. 99% of people would tell you that. People don’t want to be in a stadium at 2am freezing. We’re still negotiating it, it’s ongoing."