Boxing Experts Share Thoughts on Tyson Fury's Latest Heavyweight Comeback

At 37, with two losses to Oleksandr Usyk and five retirements behind him, Tyson Fury steps back into the ring Saturday night at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium against Arslanbek Makhmudov, and the consensus from boxing experts is anything but unified on what to expect.

Fury carries a record of 34-2-1 into the 12-round Netflix main event. Makhmudov enters at 21-2-0. The Russian-born Canadian has delivered 19 knockouts, mostly within the first three rounds of his 20-odd fight career. Fury acknowledged the symmetry between the two fighters: "We're similar age, similar size, similar weight, similar record," Fury told Sky Sports. "I was world champion, he was #2 in the rankings when I was WBC champion. He was one of the fights I got offered, actually."

Promoter Eddie Hearn offered measured confidence heading into the fight. He said Fury would "win every round" against Makhmudov and take a points decision, but attached a qualifier that did as much to expose the uncertainty as resolve it: "Not a big threat unless Tyson Fury's shot, and I don't believe he is at all," he told reporters.

Nobody has raised the question of physical decline more bluntly than Fury's own father. John Fury said last month that the trio of punishing Wilder fights had finished his son. "Tyson has been gone since the Deontay Wilder fights, they finished him... Makhmudov is a problem for Tyson," John Fury said. He added: "I understand now that Tyson is testing himself. But I can tell you now, his legs aren't there any more."

Tyson Fury pushed back on the skepticism Thursday by invoking the Daniel Dubois-Anthony Joshua fight in 2024, when he alone predicted the upset: "I've never lost my speed of reactions. I've still got it. 100 percent," Fury insisted. On the Toe2Toe podcast, boxing experts Barry Jones and Don Charles selected Makhmudov as the ideal comeback opponent for Fury, calling it "the most logical one for him to come back to."

The fight is a credibility platform, but the real stakes lie on the other side of it. Fury has outlined a three-fight plan for 2026: Makhmudov, then Joshua, then a world title shot. "The perfect year would be to smash Makhmudov to pieces, then smash Anthony Joshua to pieces and then win the world title at the end of the year, whether it is off Usyk or if it is off the Dubois-Wardley winner," Fury said.

That road runs directly through one of the most congested title pictures in recent heavyweight history. Usyk defends his WBC title against Verhoeven at the Pyramids of Giza on May 23, while Wardley faces Dubois for the WBO belt in Manchester on May 9. A Joshua-Fury showdown is reported for Dublin in late summer or fall, with a late-2026 or early-2027 Usyk title defense against the WBO winner targeted after that.

Eric Raskin of BoxingScene assessed the limits of what Saturday can prove: even a dominant performance at Tottenham will not confirm Fury is still elite, only that the possibility remains. If he struggles in any significant way against Makhmudov, Raskin wrote, "we will know the years and wars and layoffs... have caught up with him."

Fury himself has retired five times and said he meant it each time. "I've come back four times successfully," he acknowledged, "and we'll see if it's five." Whether this fifth return proves a launchpad or a cautionary close depends on what happens when the opening bell rings Saturday in north London.