Fury ended his most recent ring hiatus on Saturday night when he widely outpointed Arslanbek Makhmudov in the main event of The Ring card at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

 The clash, which Fury won via 120-108 shutout on two of the judges’ scorecards, was perhaps most notable for what happened afterwards. 
“I want to give the fans the fight you have all been waiting for,” he said. “I want you, AJ, Anthony Joshua. Let’s give the fans what they want, the Battle of Britain. Do you accept?”



But Joshua refused to engage, or even stand up from his seat, much less enter the ring for the sort of face-off which would have sent world boxing into a frenzy. Then, to further add to the sense of a missed opportunity, Joshua’s microphone was not audible for the 60,000 inside the stadium, many of whom booed.

 “You all saw what happened there,” Fury said an hour later at his press conference. “I've never mentioned Anthony Joshua in the whole build-up since his accident, gave him the respect he deserves and space, but tonight he came here for the job.

“I asked him to do the fight, he should've gone in there and did it, but in my opinion he didn't want no smoke. Didn't want it, looked shell shocked, didn't know what to say. Came ringside to make the fight and, yeah, if it was me I would've jumped in the ring.

 “This has been 10 years in the making and still, after all this time, there's uncertainty about if this fight's going to happen next.”



But Fury insists that, for his part, the agreement is done and dusted and his side of the deal is already signed. There is no purse split to get in the way as both fighters will agree to a financial figure that suits them instead of sharing a pot.


“I’ve signed, done,” he says. “I’m not interested in the money. I’ve got more money than anyone can spend in this room. Does it really matter?”

In an ideal world, Fury and his manager Spencer Brown envisage the fight with Joshua taking place in September with Wembley Stadium representing the most obvious venue for arguably the biggest fight in British boxing history to take place.

 However, with Joshua still contemplating a warm-up fight before stepping into the ring to face Fury, the five months until September don't represent a particularly long time.

Aside from his six-round knockout of YouTuber Jake Paul in December, Joshua has not fought since he was knocked out by Daniel Dubois at Wembley in September 2024. Joshua's life was rocked on Dec. 29 when he was in an automobile accident in Nigeria that caused the deaths of close friends Sina Ghami and Latif "Latz" Ayodele.

Joshua has confirmed he will fight on in their honor, but he has intimated that he needs a bit more time to get himself ready for a clash of that magnitude with Fury. A low-level run-out in the interim is required.

“It’s just another stumbling block," Fury said. "This has been 10 years in the making, what’s the hold up? He’s come off a win [vs. Paul], knocked a man spark out and broke his jaw, I’ve just come off a fight, let’s get it on. He’s 36, I’m 37, why keep postponing?

The problem is, taking interim fights you can get chinned by anybody. It's not like we're two flyweights and that much better than everyone else, even a journeyman can knock a good man out because they have power.”

Fury says he signed a deal to fight three times this year, starting with Makhmudov, but in a bid to force the issue, the Gypsy King now says he is not interested in the second outing being against anybody but Joshua.

“Here's the thing: If it ain't Anthony Joshua next, I'm not interested in boxing. I'll eat a thousand Easter eggs, go up to 35 stone [490 pounds], I'm out and not interested.

“Not up-and-comers or someone trying to prove a point over me, don't care. Don't care about rankings, belts, only AJ. That is the defining fight for British boxing. It's either going to happen or it's not.”

When asked whether he is happy to give him more time to decide his next move given what happened in that car crash in Lagos, Fury replied: “He's had his problems, we all have. I've attempted to kill myself before, been through it, one step out of mental institution. We all have problems. That's life unfortunately.

"If you're in this game, you're either a boxer or not.”