HEAVYWEIGHT Tyson Fury believes rival Anthony Joshua ‘couldn’t smoke a cigarette, let alone the Gypsy King’.
But the WBC champ also admitted he respects AJ and reckons his biggest rival would ‘love him’ if they got to know each other.
The Gypsy King was responding to AJ’s claim that he would ‘smoke’ Fury in an interview with Manchester United legend Gary Neville.
Joshua and Fury were due to meet in the ring in August but the bout collapsed before contracts were finalised.
Discussing the proposed fight with Neville on The Overlap YouTube channel, AJ said: “It’s not me, it’s the other side that are letting this down.
“We had the deal in place. We were the ones who found the venue and they bailed out on not only me but the boxing world.
“I’ll smoke that guy! I will, it’s annoying.”
Fury has since followed Joshua as a guest on The Overlap and was asked to respond to his comments when questioned by Neville.
BETTING SPECIAL – GET 30/1 ON STERLING TO SCORE OR ASSIST vs POLAND
And the 33-year-old said: “AJ couldn’t smoke a cigarette, never mind smoke the Gypsy King. He hasn’t got the minerals to fight a man like me.
“I said to Eddie Hearn [AJ’s promoter] straight, ‘The difference in me and him is he’s a businessman and I’m a f***ing Spartan.’
“And I’ll show him that when I get in the ring. I will absolutely annihilate that bodybuilder, he won’t go past six rounds. It will be over quickly.
“He knows that and his full team know it. And that’s why Eddie Hearn has been steering around me for the last ten years.”
Neville then queried: “Has Eddie Hearn ever tried to sign you?”
To which Fury responded: “He has. He had the opportunity to do it.
“I believe he said in one of his interviews it was the biggest regret of his life that he didn’t sign the Gypsy King up.”
And then Neville asked if Fury liked Hearn, to which the boxer replied: “Eddie Hearn, he is a proper southern w***er.
“I don’t know if you can say that on your show?
“I love to terrorise Eddie because he loves to talk s**t about people that he’s got nothing to do with.
“All Eddie has ever done is talk rubbish about me because he knows it gets him hits and viewing figures on interviews.
“At the end of the day, what’s he ever achieved in his life? He’s never been a boxer.
“He goes around like he’s world heavyweight champion, but he isn’t. He’s just a businessman.
“There’s plenty of them out there but there’s only one, real, heavyweight world champion – and that’s me.”
Fury later admitted that he respects Joshua, telling Neville: “I respect any boxer that gets in the ring.
“And I respect him not only because of a boxing side of things, I respect him because he’s come from a very rough council estate – he was a drug dealer and all that sort of stuff in his early life – and he’s changed it all around to become a champion.
“He’s earned tonnes of money, become an ambassador for the game, changed his family’s life and the way they were going to go.”
Fury then claimed AJ would love him if the unified world champ got to know the Gypsy King outside of the sport.
He added: “I see interviews where he says I’m his worst enemy and that he hates me but I’ve never met the guy.
“I’ve met him a couple of times but never had no personal stuff [interactions], so he doesn’t know if he hates me or not.
“I think he loves me really but pretends he hates me. He used to be a fan boy of mine years ago when I was a champion and he was a nobody.
“He used to follow me on Instagram and Twitter and all that.
“And when he became boxer, he became this big famous guy that in his own mind is a superstar – a movie star – and all of a sudden he unfollowed me and now I’m his worst enemy!”
The Overlap is a new YouTube channel from Gary Neville in partnership with Sky Bet.
