Fury suffered the only two losses of his career against Usyk in May and December of 2024 and abruptly retired for a fifth time 13 months ago. The former heavyweight champion Fury (34-2-1, 24 KOs) has kick-started yet another comeback campaign for a fight against Arslanbek Makhmudov (21-2, 19 KOs) on April 11 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.

Fury’s fight with Russia’s Makhmudov will be streamed by Netflix. It is also the main event of a card presented by The Ring.

England’s Fury believes that Usyk, who owns The Ring, WBA, WBC and IBF belts and is the sport’s consensus pound-for-pound king, will have no choice but to face him again.

“At the end of the year, Usyk will be begging me for a third fight,” Fury told The Ring. “It's not me wanting to fight with him, he'll be begging me to do a fight with him – begging me, you watch.

“Money [is the reason he’ll be begging to fight me]. I’m the cash cow, top of the tree, with the biggest broadcaster on earth behind me. I’m Netflix’s golden child. Where else is he going to go? Who is he going to fight? Fight hard people for no money? That sounds really clever.”

After beating Fury, Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois twice each over the last five years, Usyk has been left without any real revenue-generating rivals that could add to his legacy. Usyk was so uninterested in a fight against WBO mandatory challenger Fabio Wardley that he vacated that title in November because he deemed the fight to be a bad business decision.

Other top challengers like WBC interim titleholder Agit Kabayel haven’t interested Usyk, either. Instead, Usyk pursued negotiations with former Fury archnemesis Deontay Wilder, but a deal never crossed the finish line.

Fury, 37, said he plans to fight into his 40s. If the 39-year-old Usyk sticks around, too, a third fight should become a reality.

“I was happily done with boxing,” Fury said. “Before the two fights with Usyk, I was going to retire anyway, win, lose or draw. I believe I won both of those fights then, now, tomorrow, next year, forever. I’m above it. I’m over it. I don’t care. Here is the thing, I was very bitter with boxing for a long time. I will take it to the grave that I won both of those fights.”

Manouk Akopyan is The Ring’s lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan.