Lennox Lewis has called on Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua to put on a fight “the world would want to see” and determine who is the greatest British heavyweight champion of their generation.

Former heavyweight champion Fury is technically still retired after hanging up his gloves in the aftermath of his second defeat to Oleksandr Usyk.

Fury’s route back to the ring appears to focus on avenging his two defeats to the undisputed Ukrainian in a trilogy fight, which he claims is scheduled for April 18 at Wembley Stadium.

But Lewis believes an all-British battle against Joshua is essential, likening it to his 1993 world heavyweight title fight against Frank Bruno.

“Fury needs a great fight,” former undisputed champion Lewis told Sky Sports. “He needs a great British fight like I had with Frank Bruno.

“They’ve been talking about it for a while, whether they’re going to do it or not, but I hope they do it because England loves a big fight when it comes to boxing.

“It’s a respect thing – who is the greatest British heavyweight champion? People want to fight for it to be at the top.

“The whole world would love to see that fight, especially the British fans, who love a good dust up between those two big heavyweights. I would love to see that fight.”

Fury focused on Usyk trilogy

Joshua has been out of action since suffering the fourth defeat of his career – a devastating fifth-round stoppage at the hands of Daniel Dubois at Wembley in September 2024.

Dubois’ subsequent and conclusive defeat to Usyk inside five rounds, however, has only reinforced Fury’s belief that a trilogy fight with the Ukrainian, and not an all-British clash with Joshua, is his logical next step.

“After watching the boxing last night and reflecting on the situation,” Fury added, “AJ boxed Daniel Dubois recently and got ironed out, knocked down five times, flattened.

“Dubois was on a great run, three big knockouts in a row, including Joshua and [Filip] Hrgovic and [Jarrell] Miller, and he goes in there and gets absolutely plastered, iced out by Usyk.

“AJ got ironed out by Dubois properly and Usyk just ironed out Dubois. So, it just shows, there’s all the big fights – [like] Tyson Fury and AJ – but it’s quite pointless.

“The only man who’s been able to beat this ****** is myself and been ripped off. I’m not sure what’s going on, but you know what it is?

“GK [Gypsy King] all day, every day, still the top dog, still the top G. Beat him twice and I’ll do it again. Wembley, here we come.”