Tyson Fury made one thing clear on Saturday night at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium: He is not done, and he has one fight in mind.
The former two-time heavyweight world champion returned from a 16-month absence to defeat Arslanbek Makhmudov via unanimous decision—scores of 120–108, 120–108, and 119–109—in what was his fifth comeback from retirement. The result was never seriously in doubt. By the third round, Makhmudov was already showing signs of fatigue as Fury switched stances and began timing his opponent with clean combinations. The Russian made a strong start in the opener, connecting with an overhand right, but faded steadily from there. The final bell was a formality.
What happened after it was not.
Tyson Fury Calls Out Anthony Joshua
With Anthony Joshua watching at ringside, Tyson Fury leaned over the ropes and invited him into the ring. Joshua declined, but the two former heavyweight champions exchanged words—Fury had to be pulled back by the referee before the result was even announced. The moment had a theatrical quality that suited both men perfectly.
After his victory was confirmed, Fury wasted no time making his intentions official.
“I challenge you, Anthony Joshua, to fight me next. Do you accept?” he said. “Let’s give the fight fans what they want. Do not run from me this time. Ten years in the making. Let’s dance.”
Joshua, for his part, gave as good as he got. “I punched you up when we were kids and I’ll punch you up again,” he said. “You aren’t going to tell me what to do. I’ve been chasing you for 10 years. I’m the boss, you work for me. I’m the landlord.”
Curiously, Tyson Fury said in a previous interview that his decision to unretire again was partly influenced by Joshua’s car accident in December 2025 and its unfortunate aftermath. According to the Gypsy King himself, the accident was possibly “the biggest turning point in this comeback.”
Will Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua Finally Get It On?
The needle appears to be real. Fury and Joshua have come close to sharing a ring before—derailed each time by contract disputes, fitness issues, and losses that reshuffled the heavyweight landscape before either could get there. Fury’s back-to-back defeats to Oleksandr Usyk changed his status. Joshua’s loss to Daniel Dubois in 2024 changed his. Neither man is where they were at the peak of their powers.
But a Battle of Britain between two former unified heavyweight champions—one with 35 wins and one of boxing’s sharpest minds, the other with genuine punching power and something to prove—remains one of the sport’s most compelling unmade fights.
Fury summed up the night with the kind of bluntness that has always defined him. “I just took out the No. 5 contender in the world with ease,” he said. “I got 12 rounds against a tough opponent, a knockout specialist. That is better than a one rounder against a bum.”
The dance, it seems, is finally about to begin.
