(Reuters) – WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury said he is willing to return to the ring for a potential unification bout against Anthony Joshua or Oleksandr Usyk but said organisers would have to dig deep to tempt him out of “retirement”.
Fury knocked out fellow Briton Dillian Whyte in April to retain his title before telling fans he would be sticking to his promise to his wife to retire.
However, the 33-year-old said he had been in talks with his promoter Frank Warren about a potential return and that they were “going to make something big, big happen”.
Usyk beat Joshua in September last year to seize the WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO belts and the rematch is likely to take place in August, with British media reporting that Fury was waiting in the wings for the winner.
Fury, who is known as the ‘Gypsy King’, described Usyk as a “middleweight” but said he expected him to beat Joshua again.
“When this middleweight knocks out this bodybuilder again, there’s only going to be one man to sort this absolute circus out, isn’t there?” Fury said.
“What I would say to the people who want this fight to happen, you better have a big cheque book, because to bring the big ‘GK’ out of retirement… it’s going to cost.”
(Reporting by Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
