Former two-time heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury told Arslanbek Makhmudov that he “will lay him unconscious” tomorrow night at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. However, Fury also stated that he’s got his eyes on the rest of boxing’s most lucrative weight class.
“Not only will I do it to him, I will do it to all of them like I’ve done many times in the past before,” Fury told the heavyweight division, while Makhmudov started nodding off at yesterday’s official press conference. “Sooner or later these so called alphabetical world champions are going to have to fight me. Whoever it might be, whoever has got the belt at the time will be hunted and will be destroyed.”
Fury’s comments follow a brief 16 month retirement off the back of two defeats to Oleksandr Usyk in 2024.
“Let’s face it, I’m the money man!” Fury continued: “When you mention Tyson Fury and heavyweight boxing, you know you are getting paid. So, they are lining up, all of them. Whoever has got belts, they will be begging to fight me by the end of the year. They’ll be on their hands a knee’s, begging to fight them.”
Fury (34-2-1, 24 KOs) will have to deal with Russia’s Makhmudov ahead of the line heavyweight fighters that he perceives will be queuing around the corner to face him.
“I’ve been out of the ring for 16 months and I’m back at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium,” Fury explained. “There will be 60 to 70 thousand people there. I’m bringing the biggest broadcasting stream in Netflix. This is my sixth stadium fight back-to-back! Who has ever done that before? ChatGPT said ‘nobody.’ I’m the first one. I’m the first man in history to do six stadium fights back-to-back. No one has ever done it before. People fight in arenas and the MGM’s and T-Mobile [In Las Vegas] and stuff, but not f***ing stadium back-to-back.”
Fury turned 37 in April, yet many of the top contenders at heavyweight are his age or older.
“Obviously I am the top man in this division,” Fury added. “I’m going to prove it again, again, and again. It won’t be nothing to me because that’s what I do. I fight, I box and after watching Derek Chisora and Deontay Wilder the other day, I thought to myself ‘I’m not going to be like that surely on Saturday night, because if I am, please take me out to the field and shot me.’ No disrespect to those boys, they showed hearts of lions and determination and everything, but age waits for nobody.”
Usyk is the current IBF, WBA and WBC champion, but will only dfend the WBC title when he takes on Rico Verhoeven on May 23. Fury’s fellow Englishman, Fabio Wardley is the current WBO champion. Wardley will make the first defense of his WBO belt against Daniel Dubois on May 9.
