On Monday, Fury and Arslanbek Makhmudov kicked off the promotion for their April 11 showdown with a press conference at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which will host their clash in seven weeks’ time. The fight will be Fury’s first for nearly 16 months following his retirement in the wake of his December 2024 defeat to Oleksandr Usyk. At Monday’s press conference he vowed to ‘make boxing great again’, insisting he had no choice but to return in order to breathe new life into a stagnant division.

 Such a claim may have ruffled the feathers of a few active heavyweights, like Ring, IBF, WBA and WBC champion Usyk or the man who currently holds the WBO belt, Fabio Wardley. Usyk became a two-time undisputed heavyweight champion in July when he crushed Daniel Dubois at a packed Wembley Stadium while Wardley stopped former WBO champion Joseph Parker in the climax of one of the fights of the year at London’s o2 Arena on October 25. But Moses, absent since he beat Dillian Whyte in August, could not help but side with Fury in this debate.

“I probably agree with him,” he said, when asked about Fury’s claims. “I would say it's a bit boring. “Even for myself, people keep asking me ‘when are you going to fight for a world title? When are you going to do this or that?’ But what you've got to realise is I've surpassed a certain level, but the next level I want to get to, they don't want to fight or they're not active.

"Usyk and Fabio have got the belts. And it's like, what am I supposed to do? I'm in good positions with most of the major governing bodies so I should be able to fight with these guys. "But obviously, Usyk has earned the right to do whatever the hell he wants and obviously me and Fabio are in the same gym.” In the absence of a world title shot, Itauma will take on Jermaine Franklin on March 28 in their rearranged encounter. The pair had been set to fight in January until a biceps injury sustained in sparring forced the 21-year-old to withdraw.

But after a period of exhaustive rehabilitation work to correct the issue,  Itauma (13-0, 11 KOs) will get the chance to make a statement against Franklin (24-2, 15 KOs). The 32-year-old is well known to UK boxing fans after losing to both Anthony Joshua and Whyte, but Itauma could make a statement by becoming the first man to stop him.

Itauma, The Ring’s No. 7-rated heavyweight, is currently ranked at No. 1 by both the WBA and WBO and could secure a shot at the full world title before 2026 is out.

But Itauma does not expect his path to ever cross with that of Fury, despite the 37-year-old Gypsy King suggesting he could keep fighting well into his 40s or even 50s if he wanted to.

“I wouldn’t say me and him would ever fight,” Itauma said of Fury. “I don’t think so.

 “In the same way that Usyk has earned his stripes, so has Fury. He can do basically whatever he wants. I feel like he has already done that and he has a lot of guys on his resume.

“If the fans wanted me and him to fight and if he thinks it’s right for his career then, yeah, obviously why not? 



“But if I’m being completely realistic, I don’t think that fight will happen.”