Tyson Fury has offered his support for Anthony Joshua following the latter’s shock defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr.
Joshua lost his IBF, WBA (Super) and WBO heavyweight titles to the unfancied challenger at Madison Square Garden in what was his first defeat in 23 professional bouts.
Fury and Joshua have repeatedly clashed on social media over the years but Fury has backed his rival to bounce back from a defeat that shocked the boxing world.
“We have our back and forths but Anthony Joshua changed his stars through life,” Fury wrote on Twitter.
“Heavyweight boxing, these things happen, rest up, recover, regroup and come again.”
Deontay Wilder took a less sympathetic view of Joshua’s loss. The reigning WBC champion wrote on Twitter: “He wasn’t a true champion.
"His whole career was consisted of lies, contradictions and gifts. Facts and now we know who was running from who!!!”
Dillian Whyte was also unsympathetic. The two fought in 2015 with an ill-tempered build-up culminating in Joshua securing an emphatic seventh round knockout.
Shortly following Ruiz’s victory, Whyte simply tweeted a link to The Verve’s The Drugs Don’t Work – having previously accused Joshua of ‘legally juicing’.
