Tyson Fury deserves to be recognised as best heavyweight on planet, insists Ricky Hatton

TYSON FURY deserves to be recognised as the best heavyweight on the planet, British boxing hero Ricky Hatton claimed.

The former two-weight world champion has joined the Gypsy King’s team since the heavyweight made his boxing return last year.

Fury is riding high off a second round demolition job against an undermatched Tom Schwarz in Las Vegas last month and will now move onto his next fight in Autumn.

A rematch against WBC king Deontay Wilder is set to follow next year, after the Alabama puncher was lucky to keep his crown in the first fight in December.

Brit icon Hatton, 30, told fellow Mancunian Fury, 30, is the man at the top of the division, with or without the belts to back it up.

He said: “I think he deserves to be recognised as the best heavyweight.

“He might not have the belts, but I think anyone or any governing body would sit there and say he’s the man at the minute.”

Fury lost his unified titles out of the ring following a battle with personal demons and watched heavyweight rival Anthony Joshua pick up the vacate belts.

But AJ surrendered his crown at the top of the division after losing to 25-1 chubster Andy Ruiz Jr - with a lucrative rematch set for late this year.

Hatton has gone against cynics and backed Josh to bounce back, saying: “Sometimes people come back from defeats with a vengeance and some people they never come back the same.

“If you have to ask me as an outsider, I‘d say he beats Ruiz nine times out of ten, for me.

“Even though he’s a very, very dangerous fighter and he’s got very, very fast hands and he’s already planted that danger in Anthony’s mind.

I would like to still see him back in there in future because it was still a shock defeat.

“I think he’s a better fighter than Ruiz, so I would get straight back in.”