- Tyson Fury has mocked Anthony Joshua's decision to train in Ukraine alongside Oleksandr Usyk, calling both fighters "sausages" and "fruits" in a social media video
- Fury contrasted the Joshua-Usyk link-up with his own laid-back Morecambe camp alongside Joseph Parker, presenting himself as the relaxed heavyweight king
- Behind the jokes, Fury issued a proper warning: "I punched the head off Usyk, and I'll punch the head off AJ as well" — the Gypsy King is ready for his April 11 return
Fury Does Fury
Right then. Tyson Fury is back. Not just in the ring for his return against Arslanbek Makhmudov on April 11 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but back in the mouth. And as anyone who follows British boxing knows, Fury on the mic is half the show.
His latest target? Anthony Joshua, who has made the eye-catching decision to head to Ukraine and train alongside Oleksandr Usyk. It's a strange one on paper — the man who's twice beaten Joshua now helping him prepare for a potential fight with, well, Fury himself. You can understand why the Gypsy King has had something to say about it.
"Sausages and Fruits"
Fury's Instagram video was, as ever, peak Fury. "You got Usyk and Joshua teaming up. Two sausages, fruits, with their masks on, training. And you got me and my boy [Joseph Parker] here. The two best drinkers, the two best partiers in the game." Classic nonsense from the Morecambe man, delivered with that trademark grin and the kind of confidence that either fires you up or drives you mad, depending on your allegiance.
The image Fury is painting is telling. Joseph Parker, a former WBO heavyweight champion in his own right, is apparently Fury's man-with-a-beer training partner. Joshua's got Usyk wearing training masks in Kyiv. It's two very different approaches and Fury knows exactly what he's doing by framing it this way.
The Serious Bit
Behind the pisstaking, Fury landed his real message. "It won't help him. It won't help him at all. I punched the head off Usyk, and I'll punch the head off AJ as well." Make no mistake, that's the line of the week. Whatever you think of the Fury-Usyk scorecards — and plenty still argue them — Fury genuinely believes he's got the formula for both men, and he's not wasting breath pretending otherwise.
And look — he might have a point on the training argument. Learning from a world-class opponent is one thing, but you can't spend three weeks in Ukraine and suddenly develop the southpaw angles, the feet, or the ring IQ that took Usyk twenty years to build. If you think a camp with the man who beat you twice automatically unlocks the answers for a completely different fighter, you haven't been paying attention.
Focus on Makhmudov
Before any of the Joshua-Fury chatter means a thing, Fury has to get past Makhmudov on April 11 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. That is a real fight. Makhmudov is a heavy-handed heavyweight who has stopped good operators, and Fury's been out of the ring for over a year. Ring rust is a proper thing, and a shot from Makhmudov is the kind of shot that ends nights if it lands clean.
Eddie Hearn has been publicly shutting down claims that Joshua-Fury is anything close to signed, so for now the trash talk is just trash talk. But that's how Fury operates. He keeps his name in the headlines between fights, he winds up his rivals, and he turns up on fight night ready to scrap.
My Take
Let's not beat around the bush. Fury mocking Joshua for training with the man who beat both of them is peak comedy. But he also isn't wrong that the link-up is strange, and he's absolutely right that a short camp with Usyk won't transform Joshua into a different boxer. AJ at his best is a proper heavyweight — sharp jab, cracking right hand, dangerous on the front foot. He doesn't need to become Usyk. He needs to be a more disciplined version of himself.
My prediction: Fury blows away Makhmudov inside six rounds, uses his ring rust excuse pre-fight and then floats around like he never left. Joshua sorts out his own camp, and somewhere down the line, if the money lines up, we finally get the fight British fans have wanted for the best part of a decade. Until then? More Instagram videos. And I'm here for it.