Tyson Fury’s comeback from retirement is now two wins deep after he stopped Mariusz Wach in the seventh round in Pattaya, Thailand, continuing a return that began with a New Year’s announcement and is now building towards a mega-fight with Anthony Joshua before the year is out.
Wach’s corner pulled him out between rounds at Max Muay Thai Stadium, unable to continue against Fury’s pressure, moving “The Gypsy King” to 36-2-1. The fight itself went largely unaired live, with footage instead earmarked for the next season of Fury’s Netflix series, but the result did exactly the job it needed to.
From retirement to “Return of the Mac”
Photo: IMAGO
Fury had walked away from the sport in January 2025 after back-to-back defeats to Oleksandr Usyk, a run that left him insisting his career was over. That lasted almost exactly a year. On 4 January 2026 he announced his U-turn on social media in typically blunt fashion: “2026 is that year, return of the mac. Been away for a while but I’m back now, 37 years old and still punching.”
He backed it up with action rather than just words, out-pointing Arslanbek Makhmudov comfortably in April before this stoppage win over Wach in July, taking his comeback record to two wins from two without missing a beat.
Eyes already on Joshua
Asked about facing his long-time domestic rival rather than the man across the ring from him that night, Fury didn’t hold back: “I would’ve jabbed his head off and chinned him.” The bravado aside, the win positions him for exactly that fight later in 2026, contingent on Joshua getting through his own final tune-up first.
A trilogy with Usyk still lingers
For all the focus on Joshua, Fury’s own unfinished business with Usyk hasn’t gone away, and much of his current training set-up, built around sparring styles that mimic Usyk’s southpaw movement, suggests he hasn’t ruled out a third fight either. For now, though, the immediate destination is clear: the biggest domestic fight British heavyweight boxing can offer, finally within touching distance after years of near-misses.
