TYSON FURY HAS laid the gauntlet down to Anthony Joshua, claiming he could beat the heavyweight champion with one hand tied behind his back and no warm-up.
Joshua knocked Wladimir Klitschko out in front of 90,000 spectators at Wembley Stadium on Saturday to add the WBA (Super) and IBO titles to his IBF belt.
Fury won those titles, as well as the WBO prize, when he beat Klitschko on points in November 2015, ending the Ukrainian’s decade-long rule over the division, but the Manchester-born fighter never defended his belts due to personal issues, and was stripped of his titles last year.
Joshua called Fury out after his breakthrough victory at Wembley, but that holds no fear for a man who believes he remains the premier heavyweight on the planet.
Fury told Sky Sports: “He [Joshua] showed a lot in that fight. He showed he can get dropped and come back, which is what champions are made of. He showed he can recover from taking big shots.
“There’s only one fight out there, the biggest fight in the world and everyone knows that. It is the heavyweights. It is me and AJ, no one else. It is the only one the world wants to see and I am here, I am the lineal champion, I am still number one in the world and everybody knows that.
“We all saw [Joshua's career] had a life and death situation against Klitschko, but Klitschko couldn’t land a glove on me. Styles do make fights but I am sure I can beat AJ with one arm tied behind my back.”
Fury went on to boast: “I don’t even need a warm-up if he wants this. I have been out of the ring as long as Klitschko but the difference is, I am not 41, I am 28. AJ did really well to come back but I am not 41 or getting old. He is just a pumped-up weightlifter but [Klitschko] couldn’t land one of those of those hooks on me, at all.”
