Fury Confirms Boxing Return One Year After Retirement

Former world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury has confirmed that he is set to return to boxing, one year after hanging his gloves.

Fury’s last action was a defeat to unified champion Oleksandr Usyk in December 2024.

He confirmed his retirement a few weeks after the bout.

The British boxer previously announced his retirement from boxing after defeating Dillian Whyte at Wembley Stadium in April 2022, only to return six months later.

However, Fury announced on Sunday in an Instagram post that he is returning to boxing in 2026.

He wrote: “2026 is that year. Return of the mac. Been away for a while but I’m back now, 37 years old and still punching. Nothing better to do than punch men in the face and get paid for it.”

It would be recalled that Anthony Joshua challenged Fury after defeating Jake Paul in December.

He said: “If Tyson Fury is as serious as he thinks he is, and he wants to put down his Twitter fingers and put on some gloves, and come and fight one of the realist fighters out there who will take on any challenge, step in the ring with me next if you’re a real bad boy. Don’t do all that talking: ‘AJ this, AJ that.’ Let’s see you in the ring and talk with your fists.”

Similarly, Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s promoter also revealed that the window is open for the bout.

He said: “We can do that straight away. No interim fights. If Tyson’s ready, AJ’s ready, we don’t have to fight in February or March.”

Plans were in the pipeline for Joshua and Fury to have a tune-up fight in the early part of this year before finally facing off against each other, either in late summer or towards the back end of 2026.

Fury held multiple world heavyweight championships, including unified titles from 2015 to 2016, the Ring magazine title twice between 2015 and 2022, and the World Boxing Council (WBC) title from 2020 to 2024.

He also held the International Boxing Organization (IBO) title during his first reign as champion.