On Saturday night under the stars in north London, Tyson Fury returns to the ring after a long absence and joins the heavyweight season. He is back, and now he has to prove he is still the No 1 attraction.
For his return, Fury has picked Arslanbek Makhmudov at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which was the venue for his last fight in the UK back in 2022, when he beat Derek Chisora for the third time.
Fury has only fought in the UK twice in the last eight years; all his major fights during that time have been in Las Vegas, Riyadh and Los Angeles. This Saturday’s fight is a genuine test of his pulling power, and Makhmudov is a real threat to Fury.
The trilogy with Deontay Wilder concluded over four years ago, the last Oleksandr Usyk fight was in December of 2024, and since then Fury has maintained his profile with television shows, a retirement, and the promise of a fight with his longstanding rival, Anthony Joshua. This Saturday will be a real test of his appeal – even with Netflix’s involvement and the lack of a pay-per-view approach – and with 67,000 seats available, it will be hard to disguise a failure.
Since Fury last fought, the second points loss to Usyk at the end of 2024, the heavyweight division has not only survived but thrived. Usyk knocked out Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium last summer, Fabio Wardley won a version of the world title with a stunning stoppage of Joseph Parker, and the rise of Moses Itauma at just 21 has been inspiring. Furthermore, next month, Wardley defends against Dubois in a fight of equal parts jeopardy and violence.
Fury is now an addition, no longer the king of the division.
“I’m back for my crown,” he insisted a few weeks ago, and he could have been talking about far more than just the trinket belts that both Usyk and Wardley own. Fury was heavyweight boxing’s No 1 attraction with the fans for years. There is no belt for that title, but it means more than anything that can be strapped across a boxer’s chest. In this way, the fight against Makhmudov is the start of Fury’s quest for his old title, but not necessarily his old belts.
The reappearance of Joshua, who was ringside in the UK on Saturday at the Wilder-Chisora fight, for his first public appearance since the horror crash last December, led to increased speculation that a fight with Fury is once again a possibility. It was first mentioned in 2018, made for the first time in the Covid summer of 2020, and has been discussed endlessly since then.
It remains heavyweight boxing’s biggest attraction, and Fury is a massive part of that attraction.
On Saturday, we will all get a better idea of whether Fury remains the star he was, or if he has entered that phase of his long and distinguished career where he needs a dance partner to perform somersaults for viewing figures. The Chisora-Wilder brawl was a prime example of what can happen if the mix is right.
Makhmudov, meanwhile, is the perfect choice for Fury’s return from his short exile; he is big in every single way, a brilliant pantomime baddie and a risk. Fury has never been afraid of taking a risk, but he does have a healthy fear of not being popular.
