Tyson Fury has dismissed concerns about his physical condition, insisting that a few months of hard training will see him ready to take on double world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
Fury has not had a professional fight in the two years since he beat Wladamir Klitschko in Germany to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.
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Last June the 28-year-old was charged by the UK Anti-Doping authority for allegedly consuming a performance-enhancing drug. He vacated his titles, admitted to battling depression and his boxing license was revoked in October pending an investigation.
Fury is now on the comeback trail and is targeting a showdown with Joshua and although recent footage and photographs have shown him to be lacking the required fitness to compete in the ring, Fury says he’ll be ready for action in a few months time.
Speaking to RTÉ 2fm's Game On, he said: "The fitness is coming along good. I’m training hard and trying to lose a bit of weight at the minute, that’s the most important thing before I make the big return.
"I’ve done it all my life – I’ve had 25 fights and in 23 of them I’ve had to lose more than five stone so it’s something that’s normal to me.
"All these so called champions today are on champions because of me."
"I’m a 28-year-old and it’s only a short period of time in which I get the weight off. I do the weight in about eight to ten weeks, that’s the weight gone and I can concentrate on the boxing side of things.
"So it’s not really an issue for me to be honest. If you can put the work in, then the weight will come off, it’s more of a will to do it."
Fury did admit to being out of shape but claimed that he does not consider himself to be an "athlete".
"Being a professional athlete, you should never let yourself go like I do. People will say to me, ‘you’re a professional athlete’ and I’ll say 'no, I’m a professional fighting man'.
"I’m the furthest thing from an athlete than anyone can be but I can fight, it’s what I’m good at, so I don’t really worry about the athlete side of things.
"An athlete is somehow who is fit all the time, takes the job 100% seriously, all that sort of stuff. For me, it’s not the training side of things, it’s just the fighting that I love."
One thing that Fury is not currently lacking for is motivation.
The former Irish heavyweight champion has previously claimed that he ‘hates’ boxing but now insists that with a target like Joshua in front of him, he’s eager to return to the ring.
"I get turned onto the sport when I have a challenge. When people think that someone can beat me, that’s when I like boxing," he explained.
"When I beat Klitschko he was the man in the division. For 12 years he was unbeaten, took on all comers and beat them all and I beat the man who was the legend of the game and I relieved him of all his belts.
"All these so called champions today are on champions because of me. I got all those belts off Klitschko which they could never do.
"They could never go to Germany and beat Klitschko when he was 11-years unbeaten.
"Klitschko was a broken man when he fought AJ, he was nowhere near the same man, coming off a humiliating lose."
