Undisputed junior middleweight champion Claressa Shields is backing Anthony Joshua to defeat Tyson Fury in their highly anticipated heavyweight unification.

The two champions have nearly finalized all of the details for their summer showdown, for the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO, WBC world titles.

The first of the two fight series will likely land in Saudi Arabia, on a date in July or August.

While Shields, a two-time Olympic gold medal winner, respects the abilities of Fury, she strongly believes Joshua's attributes will push him through to victory.

"I think Tyson is great and a great opponent for AJ. But I’m on a roll with AJ," Shields told VegasInsider.com.

"I think he learnt a lot from the Andy Ruiz fight. I just think now AJ knows to over prepare, over focus, put boxing first. So I don’t think that he’ll be facing another defeat for a very, very long time. The keys to victories will be his head movement, his jab, body work and using his combinations and I think he’s been doing that very well in all of his fights. He’s just going to have to be perfect that night because Tyson Fury is someone to be reckoned with.

"Tyson Fury got a great jab, good footwork, movement, he holds some power, but I just think AJ brings more to the table skillswise. If AJ brings his A-game, focuses and uses all his skills; like I said, he’s going to need his jab intact, the head movement, the bodywork, everything in order to win that fight. Tyson Fury is going to have to fight his butt off too in order to beat AJ. I feel like AJ got a lot of heart, I see him get dropped by [Wladimir] Klitschko and get back up and I’m a huge supporter of him."

Fury has been out of the ring since February of 2020, when he stopped Deontay Wilder in seven rounds to capture the WBC heavyweight crown.

Joshua saw action in December, when he knocked out the IBF's mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev.