Former world heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury says he\u2019s \u201cstill got it\u201d as he pledged to focus on the task at hand in his latest return to the ring.<\/p>\n
Following a 15-month absence, 37-year-old Fury (34-2-1, 24 KOs) is up against 36-year-old Russian-born heavyweight Arslanbek Makhmudov (21-2, 19 KOs) in a bout at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The pair spoke during a pre-fight news conference in London on Thursday, hours after the chief executive of Croke Park said the 80,000-capacity Dublin venue wanted to stage the long-awaited Battle of Britain super-fight between Fury and fellow former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.<\/p>\n Fury and Joshua have almost fought on several occasions, only for contract disputes, fitness issues and losses elsewhere to derail previous attempts to get them into the same ring.<\/p>\n Their camps had reportedly been close to an agreement before Joshua decided to take time out from boxing following a car crash which led to the deaths of two close friends in December.<\/p>\n The 36-year-old Joshua is now back in training and was at Derek Chisora\u2019s defeat by Deontay Wilder last Saturday.<\/p>\n Fury insisted on Thursday: \u201cI don\u2019t want to mention names when I\u2019ve got a dangerous fighter in front of me. The rest can get a hiding but I need to give Makhmudov a hiding first.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cLike I said when Daniel Dubois was fighting Anthony Joshua [in 2024], everybody said and all the boxing brains said, \u2018AJ will knock him out inside three rounds,\u2019 and they were overlooking him. \u2018Are you going to fight Tyson next?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I said you better put some respect on Dubois\u2019 name because he\u2019s going to chin him and that\u2019s what happened. So, I won\u2019t fall down that same hurdle and trap.\u201d<\/p>\n Nevertheless, he did hint at future plans for 2026 when he spoke on Ring\u2019s YouTube channel later on Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cAs far as I am concerned, I will focus on this big Russian fella, then Anthony Joshua and maybe a third fight [with Oleksandr Usyk],\u201d Fury said.<\/p>\n Fury retired after his second successive loss to world champion Usyk at the end of 2024 and went a year without a fight before revealing his latest comeback on January 4.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople always question retirement for me,\u201d said Fury, who on Thursday reiterated the inspiration for this return was the death of Joshua\u2019s friends because \u201cyou have got to live every day like it is your last\u201d.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cI\u2019ve retired five times before and meant it wholeheartedly. I\u2019ve come back four times successfully and we\u2019ll see if it\u2019s five.<\/p>\n \u201cMake no mistake when I retire I have zero intention of returning but I miss the game. However, after a few months I am bored of the normal life. Dropping the kids off at school, taking the dogs for a walk, that kind of stuff. I miss everything that comes with big fights.\u201d<\/p>\n John Fury, Tyson\u2019s father and long a familiar figure in the corner as his son rose through the boxing ranks, said last month that a trio of gruelling fights against Deontay Wilder meant the \u2018Gypsy King\u2019 is \u201cpast his best\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cTyson has been gone since the Deontay Wilder fights, they finished him \u2026 Makhmudov is a problem for Tyson, said John Fury.<\/p>\n But Tyson said on Thursday: \u201cI\u2019ve never lost my speed of reactions. I\u2019ve still got it. 100 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n The Russian-born fighter, meanwhile, played down suggestions that Fury, \u201ca great boxer\u201d, would be hampered by a recent lack of competitive ring time.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a problem for him because of his experience,\u201d said Makhmudov, who briefly grabbed Fury in a playful bear hug.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe it\u2019s the opposite because he can recover from hard fights in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n Makhmudov has created some buzz ahead of the fight by posting a video that showed him wrestling a 2.9m (9 feet 8 inch), 419kg bear in woods outside of Moscow nearly two years ago \u2013 an encounter he says taught him to confront fear.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was very terrible. Not just scary, but really crazy terrible,\u201d Makhmudov told the Press Association this week.<\/p>\n \u201cSince I was a kid I have liked a challenge, that\u2019s why I did that just to test myself to see how I would feel in that crazy situation.<\/p>\n \u201cYou only understand its strength when you\u2019re close to it. In one second you can become like meat, just meat, just like that.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not comparable with human stuff. It\u2019s like a natural disaster, I cannot explain it, it\u2019s crazy.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is good preparation for boxing because you have to control your emotions and your fear. You have to beat your fear, beat your phobias. For that it was good, but one time is enough!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Former world heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury says he\u2019s \u201cstill got it\u201d as he pledged to focus on the task at hand in his latest return to the ring. Following a 15-month absence, 37-year-old Fury (34-2-1, 24 KOs) is up against 36-year-old Russian-born heavyweight Arslanbek Makhmudov (21-2, 19 KOs) in a bout at the Tottenham […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
\u2018Bored of the normal life\u2019<\/h2>\n
Makhmudov says wrestling a bear once was \u2018enough\u2019<\/h2>\n
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