Fury famously called Joshua a “steam train” that couldn’t be stopped, but the two have since become fierce rivals and are on a collision path to fight.

Tyson Fury’s ‘humble’ statement of support for Anthony Joshua before their nearly decade-long conflict resurfaced ahead of his undisputed battle against Oleksandr Usyk.

When Fury fights Usyk tonight in Saudi Arabia, he will attempt to become the first man since Lennox Lewis in 1999 to hold all four major belts in his weight division. Both men will most likely be unable to fight a different opponent until next year as their mega-fight requires them to face each other twice, regardless of the outcome of tonight’s match.

The first recorded tweet from Fury to ‘AJ’ before they became bitter rivals was an encouraging one, as ‘The Gypsy King’ watched Joshua KO Kevin Johnson within two rounds. Fury told the soon-to-be two-time heavyweight world champion that he was “looking like a machine,” adding that the win was a “great job,” and asking “who can stop this steam train?”

Any niceties between Fury and AJ were quickly forgotten about when the former fell into a deep depression that led to almost a three-year hiatus. After Joshua claimed Fury was jealous of him, he brutally replied: “Jealous of a weightlifter who is fighting for a paper title? Lol you help me! Lol ok, I need a gym door man.”

Joshua hit back at that tweet by responding to Fury: “Keep on praying for my downfall fat boy. I’ll see you soon. One Fury at a time.” Fury proceeded to laugh off Joshua’s suggestion and later called him a “poor man’s Frank Bruno”, with ‘AJ’ taking the rivalry one step further by offering Fury two ringside tickets to his bout with Wladimir Klitschko.

‘AJ’ joked that two tickets didn’t mean he could bring a plus one, as he would be so big that he’d need two seats for himself. ‘The Gypsy King’ then told his domestic rival: “I might be fat, but you’re a paper champ and paper-chinned weightlifting rudeboy wannabe badman. Know your place chump! Or I’ll come back and KO you.”

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn labelled ‘AJ’ as the best heavyweight in the world after he brutally KO’d Francis Ngannou in just five minutes when they fought in March. Joshua did what Fury couldn’t as he was dropped by Ngannou and only won a controversial decision in their crossover fight, but Fury quickly shut down talk of his rival being the top dog.

“I’m sure that Oleksandr Usyk will have something to say about that given he beat him twice,” Fury said. “For the actual real boxing, it’s me and Usyk who fight for the undisputed heavyweight world championship of the world. I had a s*** performance against Ngannou and I almost got it right, I predicted one round.