Tyson Fury is resuming his boxing career for the umpteenth time in a decade that has wandered from the sublime to the ridiculous and back again. From the dizzying zenith of 2015, the nights tangling with Wilder, to his own denouement in the face of Usyk's brilliance. Up. Down. In. Out. Back.
Will Tyson Fury beat Anthony Joshua if they meet in 2026
I've written about Tyson Fury more than any other fighter, I've not checked the statistical veracity of that statement but it is certainly true. From the beginning he has enthralled, frustrated, charmed, illuminated, bored, contradicted, triumphed, fallen, flattered, deceived. I could go on. In many ways, he is a simple soul. But appears far more complex for those determined to hold him to account to all that he has said and done. What is true today, is as likely to be untrue tomorrow. What was said yesterday needn't represent his feelings tomorrow.
In short, there is precious little value in deconstructing his view of the world, nor noting the conflict that often exists between his statements from one week to the next, one year to the next. He was going to box until he was 40 something, even if it was just bums, then he was retired. Bravado, bluster, vaguely controversial, loud, present, visible, conspicuous. It is hard not be the latter at 6ft 9 and the Fury brand of enormous of course. Fury is all those things. There always remains a part of him compelled to compete. However ravaged by time and excess he becomes.
When dimmed by success, as sometimes he perversely is, his father has picked up the smouldering beacon and doused it in petrol. The Fury pilot light has never quite been extinguished in the public consciousness and one could speculate that Tyson will, for a long time yet, keep coming back. Life away from the ring is rich and plentiful. But the rigour of training is a necessity for his well being and the glow of the spotlight draws him despite his reported love of anonymity. It is a peculiar relationship he has with fame and perhaps reflective of his huge fluctuations of mood that there is no middle ground, no medium index. It is either all in or all out. And neither state suits him for too long.
Aged 37 and counting, for there is always an invisible clerk noting the periods of ballooning weight, of over-indulgence and his appetite for destructive habits. Fury is not a young 37. Few evade the reckoning demanded by this fluctuating dedication. Those who excel into their late-30s and 40s are rare, even in these years of inactivity and diminished standards; Hopkins, Usyk, Donaire. Are unified in their devotion. Rigid mindsets. Fury's brilliance is in his instinct, in his reflex, in the perverse comfort of peril and challenge. But not in his consistency.
And so to the 2026 return. Unsurprisingly, he looks soft to the middle in the footage shared, but that is nothing new. Of greater concern will be what remains of the aforementioned reflex on which his style often relied - despite more aggressive persuasions latterly - and his resistance to the punches coming back. It appeared hugely diminished in the two encounters with Usyk. Where once laid an ability to take big shots, to evade many, and to climb back toward the tumult when felled, stood a big, lumbering target.
Fortunately, Usyk is unlikely to figure in his comeback. That hand has been played. Nevertheless, Fury will have to prove he truly has the fighting force within him still and can impose himself on opponents who may no longer fear him the way they once did when he was in the rudest of his prime.
As someone who has registered an affection for him for a number of years - with acknowledgement that his retirements and returns are tiresome - I will be keen to see if he can do the improbable.
Joshua appears the obvious, convenient, lucrative and wildly belated target.
Regardless of the frequent retirements and the evident decline in his durability and sense of invincibility, we will both be watching, won’t we?
He knows that too.