TYSON FURY has not taken kindly to the thought that Anthony Joshua, the IBF and WBA heavyweight champion, is now the number one in the division.

Fury beat Wladimir Klitschko in Germany to win three belts in 2015 but was stripped of the IBF title when he agreed to rematch Klitschko. The IBF will allow Joshua a rematch before he has to box his mandatory challenger, in his case Kubrat Pulev. “AJ’s just had the same thing and he’s been granted time to defend,” he complained.

Tyson Fury

Fury took to social media to hit back, saying, “People do want to see the fight between me and you AJ. The world wants to see it because I’m still the lineal heavyweight champion. And everybody knows that. I walked away from boxing because I wasn’t interested. There were no challengers there. I played with the best man there was.

“But I’ve been out two years and there seem to be a few more challenges. People think that you can beat me. I don’t think you can personally. Let me get my situation on track, get fit and I’ll fight you. May the best man win.”

As if to confirm he means business Fury added, “Been out of boxing nearly two years so that should make it fair on the others. I really don’t believe that AJ can lace my boots up, I want to come back and see how good I am even with the time out. Me vs AJ is the biggest fight in boxing without a doubt! If this fight isn’t made it will be like Lennox Lewis and Riddick Bowe.

“Now there are new challenges I can motivate myself again. [Deontay] Wilder and AJ and [Joseph] Parker, even [Alexnader] Povetkin these are the fights I want. Let’s make this happen. Let’s make boxing great again.”