Tyson Fury says there is no danger of him overlooking Arslanbek Makhmudov, the giant Russian he faces on Saturday, despite talk of a "Battle of Britain" being underway.
Fury returns to the ring after a 15-month retirement and back-to-back losses to Oleksandr Usyk when he takes on Makhmudov at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday.
The "Gypsy King" was tight-lipped on an eagerly anticipated bout with fellow British heavyweight Joshua on Thursday, even though Croke Park stadium chief executive Peter McKenna revealed discussions had started over the contest being held in Ireland.
Dublin's Croke Park, which holds more than 80,000 spectators, has been earmarked as the ideal venue to stage the blockbuster heavyweight bout, which looked on the cards in December when an agreement appeared close before Joshua was rocked by the death of two close friends in a car crash.
Joshua (29-4, 26KOs) took time away from the sport, but has resumed training and made his first public appearance on Saturday when he attended Derek Chisora’s defeat to Deontay Wilder at London's O2 Arena to raise the prospect of an overdue shot at Fury.
However, Fury chose his words carefully at Thursday’s press conference and while he was eager to stay focused on bear-wrestling opponent Makhmudov (21-2, 19KOs), he also attempted to land the first verbal blow on his British rival.
“Well, I don’t want to be mentioning anybody’s name and name-dropping when I have got a dangerous heavyweight in front of me in Arslanbek Makhmudov,” Fury claimed.
“First, I’ve got to deal with him and give him a good hiding because many men have overlooked the first huddle at bigger names and been chinned … Anthony Joshua did that before.
“So, we’re not going to go there because that is what I don’t want. We will focus on one man here, Makhmudov, and come Sunday you can ask me all the questions you want about any heavyweight in the world, but give this man his respect.
“Like I said when Daniel Dubois was fighting Anthony Joshua (in 2024), everybody said and all the boxing brains said, ‘AJ will knock him out inside three rounds,’ and they were overlooking him. ‘Are you going to fight Tyson next?’ And I said you better put some respect on Dubois’ name because he’s going to chin him and that’s what happened. So, I won’t fall down that same hurdle and trap.”
Fury again reiterated on Thursday that the death of Joshua’s close friends Sina Ghami and Latif ‘Latz’ Ayodele in Nigeria influenced his decision to reverse his retirement from boxing because “you have to live every day like it’s your last” before his 38th contest.
All roads currently lead to fight number 39 being against Joshua, especially after key figures at Croke Park let slip plans to stage Katie Taylor on the undercard of any potential ‘Battle of Britain’ in Dublin.
“The real hope is that we will get Tyson Fury here later on in the year,” Croke Park stadium chief executive Peter McKenna told BBC Sport.
“That would be such a world-billing event that we would be able to facilitate a Katie Taylor fight here. A lot of stars need to align. Katie’s manager needs to agree, Katie’s promoter needs to agree, Tyson Fury’s promoter needs to agree.
“I am very confident that all three are coming to the sense.”
Fury hopes to do better than 'shocking' Tottenham
Fury was on top form – and even took aim at “shocking” Premier League strugglers Tottenham.
Fury will step out to fight in the UK for the first time since 2022 when he takes on Russian heavyweight Arslanbek Makhmudov at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after 16 months outside the ring.
After using his final press conference to, among other subjects, promote the second season of his Netflix series, Fury's focus turned towards relegation-threatened Tottenham.
Spurs, who play at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and are the ninth richest football club in the world, are currently on a 13-match winless run in the Premier League and embroiled in a first relegation battle for 29 years.
“It has been four years since I’ve been boxing in the UK,” Fury started.
“I’ve been out in Saudi Arabia, which was fantastic for me. It was unbelievable.
“Yeah, to come back to England and fight here, in a stadium at Tottenham Hotspur, let’s hope I do a lot better than Tottenham are doing right now because they are shocking at the minute!
“But it’s an unbelievable experience you know to have 60,000 cheering fans for you on Saturday night.”
