Tyson Fury has said he would like to return to the ring in August, as he eyes a warm-up bout for his clash with Anthony Joshua.
British heavyweights Fury and Joshua have signed to fight each other later this year, with a date and location yet to be confirmed. However, London’s Wembley Stadium is the frontrunner to host the contest, with October and November the likeliest months.
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First, though, Joshua must get past Kristian Prenga in a warm-up fight in Saudi Arabia on 25 July. And now Fury is working on setting up his own keep-warm contest.
Tyson Fury ahead of his fight with Arslanbek Makhmudov in April 2026 (Reuters)
“So, my fight plan this year is three fights,” he said on FurociTV. “So it will be April, August, and whenever the big fight’s announced – either October, November.
“We haven’t got an opponent yet, but again: it’s never about the opponent; it’s just about me versus me, always.
“So, whoever the opponent is – if it’s Joe Bloggs or if it’s Mike Tyson – it’s all important to me. It’s just the run-out for me, like, just to get sharper for the big one.
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“Listen, I might get knocked out my next fight in August, so then it’s all over. So, I got to take one fight at a time, and they’re all deadly-serious fights.”
Fury, 37, last fought in April, easing past Arslanbek Makhmudov on points while emerging from retirement for the fifth time. His previous outing was a points loss to Oleksandr Usyk in December 2024, his second successive defeat by the Ukrainian – and just his second loss overall.
Last week, Fury’s promoter Frank Warren said of the “Gypsy King”: “He will fight [before facing Joshua]. He wants to fight, he’s made that very clear.
“He doesn’t want to be back in the ring by November, which I think will be a gap of about seven or eight months. He wants to fight, he doesn’t want to be rusty again, and he wants to get in there, but it won’t be against Andy Ruiz.”
Anthony Joshua (centre) was stunned by Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019 before avenging the defeat (Getty)
There, Warren was ruling out a rumoured opponent: Ruiz Jr, who stunned Joshua with a knockout win in 2019. “AJ”, 36, avenged that result with a points victory later that year.
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Who could Fury face, then? It would likely be an opponent deemed easy on paper, in the same way that Joshua’s opponent Prenga is a relative unknown.
The priority for all involved in Fury vs Joshua is, naturally, to ensure that the super-fight goes ahead at long last. A clash between the former world champions has been discussed numerous times over the years, and it was even signed in 2021.
However, Deontay Wilder threatened legal action that forced a trilogy bout against Fury, who went on to stop the American for the second time.
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