Tyson Fury insists he is not past his best ahead of his latest comeback against Arslanbek Makhmudov at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on April 11.
The two-time world heavyweight champion fights for the first time since losing a unanimous decision to world No. 1 Oleksandr Usyk in December 2024, which was his second successive points loss to the Ukrainian.
Fury’s father John, who has been in his son’s corner for some fights over the last decade since Fury first became world champion with a points win over Wladimir Klitschko in 2015, this week claimed Tyson was “past his best.”
But Fury (34-2-1, 24 KOs), 37, from Morecambe in England, insists his last two fights were not evidence of any decline and he is still in “excellent” form.
“I’m the same fighter [compared to five years ago], I’m the same fighter as I’ve always been, same OG,” Fury told ESPN.
“In the next five years I will still be the same, always.
“It’s a different man — one man is in his early 20s [when Fury fought Klitschko] and the other man is in his late 30s [when Fury fought Usyk]. So it’s not the same fighter, it’s not the same performance, not the same size of opponent and not the same style of opponent. Klitschko was 6-foot-6 and a monster, Usyk was a southpaw and a monster and smaller.
“But I believe I performed absolutely awesome in both those fights against Usyk. If you like slick counter punching and boxing the head off a boxer people can’t touch, then you like the first one. Then if you like someone on the front foot bombing down the middle then you like the second one. They were brilliant performances.
“I’m over the moon with those performances. I can’t do anything about the fact that I didn’t get the decisions. But in my mind I performed excellent in those fights. I don’t feel as though I’ve gone backwards or I’m too old or whatever. I feel like they were prestige performances and if I would have got the decision nobody would have said s**t, would they?
“We are always evolving as fighters and people, we are always changing and learning things. Even at this old age of 37 you can always learn on the daily. I’ve always been a genius in the boxing ring, I’ve always been a dolphin in that boxing ring.”
Fury hopes to move past Russian Makhmudov and then fight Usyk again later this year, and wants it staged in the UK rather than in Saudi Arabia, where he has had his last three fights. Fury also said he is open to a fight vs. English rival and former champion Anthony Joshua, who was involved in a car accident in December which killed two of his friends.
“I will get it [fight vs. Usyk], who else is he going to fight? I’m the cash, I’m the cash flow in the division,” Fury told ESPN.
“Who else are they going to fight? It’s all about money at this level. I don’t see him fighting anyone else who could generate the same amount of money as fighting me. And we have unfinished business, I believe I won the first two fights. But I don’t want to fight in the Middle East, I want to fight in the UK somewhere, or Europe. Time zone is a killer for me, and it’s not really me over there [in Saudi Arabia].
“After Anthony’s tragedy I’ve not really been pushing the point but let’s see how he feels. If wants to return then great, but if he doesn’t want to return then also great. It’s not something I’m going to hold my breath for. We’ve been on the verge of that fight about five times and it still hasn’t happened.”
Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs), 39, who defends his WBC world heavyweight title vs. kickboxer Rico Verhoeven in Egypt on May 23, has targeted three more fights before retiring — but Fury is not putting a time limit on how long he has left.
“I won’t put an age on it, or a number of fights on it, I’ve retired lots of times and who knows I might retire after my next fight,” Fury told ESPN.
“I’m targeting this big Russian knockout artist who is here to knock my brains out. It’s a tough fight, I have been out the ring 16 months already, I might get my brains knocked out, who knows, and then you can target nothing. That’s why I don’t like talking about out people or who I’m targeting until I have accomplished that I’m trying to achieve at the moment, which is beating Arslanbek Makhmudov. I will fight as many times as I can in 2026.
“I’ve known Arslanbek a long time, he was ranked No. 1 or 2 in 2023 for the world heavyweight title when I was WBC champion, so I have known him for a while, and I’ve seen all his high-profile fights. He’s a big, dangerous puncher, a giant heavyweight, 6-foot-6, knockout artist and he has a good right hand. He doesn’t have the best footwork in the world but not many giant heavyweights do. But he’s big, strong and game.”
