MAZUMA STADIUM, MORECAMBE — Tyson Fury has pledged to fight British heavyweight rival Anthony Joshua twice but only after he’s done the same with Oleksandr Usyk.

WBC and lineal champion Fury will face IBF, WBA and WBO king Usyk in a much-anticipated and long-delayed bout in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on May 18 to crown the first undisputed heavyweight champion for 25 years.

The bout dubbed “Ring of Fire” is the latest boxing blockbuster to land in the Middle East state since Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, was handed the reins of power for the sport in his country.

At the end of a Wednesday press conference staged at the stadium of League Two football team Morecambe in the town the Gypsy King calls home, Alalshikh was called and put on speakerphone to address the masses.

“You know you are the most beautiful diamond in the boxing fighters,” he gushed towards Fury. “You know how I see you. From my position, I need to be fair between you and Usyk and have a good fight. But you know what you have in my heart.”

Those remarks probably won’t go unnoticed by Team Usyk, with the masterful Ukrainian’s most likely route to victory being via the scorecards. But it also marks an impressive ascent in the kingmaker’s affections given Fury’s only outing this Riyadh Season was where he almost irreparably embarrassed himself and his sport.

Last October, Fury was dropped by former UFC heavyweight champion and boxing novice Francis Ngannou before battling to a split-decision victory. Ngannou was ironed out in two rounds by Joshua last month to set tongues wagging about a long-awaited showdown.

One of the previous roadblocks to what would almost certainly stand as the biggest fight in British boxing history was a rematch clause Fury had with Deontay Wilder, forcing his unforgettable victory in the third fight of their trilogy. With this in mind, and the comparable contract he has with Usyk, he cautioned Joshua to get in line irrespective of the excitement over his rival’s return to form.

“The rematch was always very important to the little Usyk fella, he was crying like a little b*** about it because he wants double bubble,” Fury said.

(Top Rank)

“Law-abiding contracts in the past have cost me millions of dollars. For Wilder III they took me to court and arbitration in Florida and it cost me around $10 million and the fight against Joshua at that time. When you sign a legally binding document, no law in the land will overturn it.

“If you are Usyk and you get paid a lot of money to lose against me but you already have the rematch then why would you not want it? Unless Turki wants to give him something like £50million to step aside, but as far as I know nobody wants to throw away that sort of money for free.

“I take my bald head off to Usyk, he gets a second chance and paid twice.”

Joshua has impressed under his new coach Ben Davison, who helmed the early stages of Fury’s comeback from severe problems with depression and substance abuse. An eye-catching victory over former Fury foe Otto Wallin last December also forms part of this upward trajectory.

Nevertheless, Fury feels Joshua’s back-to-back decision losses to Usyk in 2021 and 2022 remain far more significant in the overall analysis than his ongoing four-fight winning streak.

“I think Eddie [Hearn, Joshua’s promoter] would like to believe that his man is a bit relevant here but let’s face facts,” he said. “It’s clear to see Usyk beat the old sausage twice. He had two attempts at him.

“The first attempt was quite an easy boxing lesson, the second fight was quite close. But he lost them both, fair and square, there was no dispute. He even had a bit of a meltdown in the ring after the second one.

“He lost, he had his chance and he lost. So now it is my turn and Usyk’s turn. It’s not about him.

“But after I’ve dealt with Usyk twice, then I will deal with the sausage AJ. I’ll do it in Saudi and then I’ll do it back here in London. I’ll do two fried sausages sizzling in a pan, instead of one.”

It’s a British banger that fans would happily devour, even after all this time waiting. But when it comes to Fury vs. Joshua, we’ve been burnt plenty of times before.