At the six-week mark of 2026, a dispiriting statistic circulated: in the UK, it had rained every single day of the year so far. And as another downpour drenched the pitch at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the turf dozing between football matches, Tyson Fury will have surely yearned for spring more than most. After all, it is the season of rebirth, and it will take on another meaning when Fury renews his career for the fifth time.
On 11 April, Fury and Arslanbek Makhmudov will return to Tottenham for Fury’s first bout since December 2024, as he emerges from retirement yet again to fight on Netflix. First, though, the Briton and the Russian visited the stadium for a press conference on Monday, where Fury made numerous revelations.
The “depressing” rain had driven him to Thailand to train; Anthony Joshua’s involvement in a tragic car crash had informed his decision to return to boxing; he will be without a coach as he prepares for Makhmudov; and he wishes to fight three times this year.
It was vintage Fury, veering from vulnerable to fanciful. But all in all… it was good to have him back.
These pages have long expressed a certain scepticism about Fury’s numerous retirements, as well as empathy for fans who have tired of the “Gypsy King” carnival. So yes, Monday’s press conference did hoist a few shoulders into shrugs. However, in the interest of fairness, it must be said that there were moments in which Fury’s charisma was captivating.
The 37-year-old’s energy was palpable as he spoke to The Independent and other publications in a suite at Tottenham, sporting a bright blue waistcoat and a garish tie adorned with the Netflix logo. In one moment, he asked an interviewer in the corner of the room to wrap things up with his dad, John, to eliminate distractions. Yet in another, he took a video call from old foe Derek Chisora, whose grinning face filled the phone screen of Fury’s manager.
Back and forth Fury and Chisora went, as they did in the ring three times, discussing this month’s “cheating” accusations against the Gypsy King – accusations from Deontay Wilder, who was twice beaten by Fury and next faces Chisora in London. “Why are you letting that big slink talk bad about me?” Fury laughed. “If he’d talked bad about you like that, I would have taken his lips off!”
It was the last we saw of Chisora, but not “Big John”. Later in the day, Fury’s father paraded himself around the venue, propelling tirades at anyone who would (despite their best efforts) listen. Former world champion Carl Froch, standing on a podium as a pundit, was the main target of John’s barbs. Froch, appearing to see John coming, had already told a member of his team to get a phone camera ready. Even Independent columnist Steve Bunce had to quell John’s… well, fury. “I’m your friend, John,” was Steve’s calm response to a, “What are you looking at?!” from the livid patriarch.
This was the more tiresome side to the Fury carnival, of course.
Perhaps John craved gasps, but sighs and rolling eyes were all he got. When the press conference started, John was sitting next to his son, only to make an announcement within seconds that he had “made” his “point” and would be making way for Spencer Brown. John beckoned Fury’s manager out of the front row and up to the stage, where Brown should have been sitting all along.
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Then came the main event, as John’s son answered questions with lines upon lines, as if someone had accidentally leant on a laptop keyboard for minutes on end.
But again, there was an essence of entertainment in much of what Fury said. Some of it was repeated, almost word for word, from what he’d told us in his suite earlier in the day, but he had saved us some tidbits.
Of Joshua’s crash in December, and the effect it had on their loosely-planned showdown this year, he said: “What happened with ‘AJ’ is a terrible tragedy, and I wish him nothing but the best. If he decides to continue boxing, then good luck to him, and if he decides to finish boxing, even more good luck to him. But it’s not a time to say I want to fight him.
“It hasn’t changed my plan. I need to take my career for myself, I am not interested in the rest of the heavyweight division. I can only concentrate on me. If I can get through Makhmudov, then we can see where we go next.”
Of the upcoming second season of At Home With The Furys, his Netflix reality show, he said: “I would assume it’s going to be April, before the fight. It would make sense, wouldn’t it, to get millions of views for the reality TV show?” And then? “Then millions of views with the documentary, the biopic documentary.”
Indeed, these upcoming releases – including a more serious documentary on Fury – were longstanding clues that the former heavyweight champ would return to the ring this year.
“That’d be like double views,” Fury said, “and then all of a sudden: bang! He fights in a few days as well. Makes a lot of sense. I think this will be one of the biggest fights ever recorded, like in terms of views on television, if that makes sense.”
It does make sense. While Fury’s return may not reach the tens of millions who saw Jake Paul vs Joshua, or Paul vs Mike Tyson, it should still be Fury’s most-watched fight ever – such is the ubiquity of Netflix. Until then, the Fury carnival continues, for better and worse.
