After a successful UK Anti-Doping hearing, the first step of Tyson Fury's long journey back to the ring is behind him.
On Tuesday, Fury finally sat before a UKAD arbitration panel, who cleared the fighter to return to action after agreeing to backdate his two-year ban for testing positive for a banned substance in 2015.
Fury will now have to get his boxing licence reinstated but it's emerged that the British Boxing Board of Control will review his suspension next month, when it's likely that he will be given the green light to enter training camp.
The BBBofC revoked Fury's licence in October 2016 due to medical issues.
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"I'm a fighting man through and through and I've never backed down from anyone in my life and I was certainly not going to back down from fighting this dispute," Fury said after UKAD freed him to continue his fighting career.
The 29-year-old is well on his way to dropping the weight he put on in his two years away from the ring and he's hoping to get a fight under his belt in April, when he will look to shake off any ring rust before setting up an all-British showdown with fellow undefeated heavyweight, Anthony Joshua, later in 2018.
"I think April of next year," uncle and trainer Peter Fury told the BBC last month when asked for Tyson's return date. "The only fear is that Joshua doesn’t get beat beforehand. That’s the fight the public want to see, that’s the fight Tyson really wants. And he really thinks that’s the fight that should be made."
