Anthony Joshua remained coy over fighting Tyson Fury despite his heavyweight rival’s challenge, but admits the long-awaited fight “probably” happens next.

The former world champions have been linked for years with speculation surrounding a deal materialising during Fury’s comeback fight against Arslanbek Makhmudov at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Fury emerged victorious in a wide points victory over the Russian, with Saudi boxing supremo Turki Alashikh hinting that a “surprise” announcement would be made later in the evening to confirm “the biggest fight in the history of England.

Fury then goaded Joshua, who was sitting ringside, alongside his promoter Eddie Hearn.

“I want to give you all the fight you wanted,” Fury said. “I want you, AJ, Anthony Joshua, let’s give the fans what they want. The battle of Britain, my challenge, I challenge you, Anthony Joshua, to fight me next. Do you accept my challenge?”

But Joshua remained unnerved, refusing to commit or agree to Fury’s terms ringside.

“Tyson, you are a clout chaser,” Joshua responded. “I’ve never had a problem getting in the ring with you. I punched you when we were kids.

“After watching you tonight, I’d do it again. I’ll see you in that ring in due time. You won’t tell me what to do. When you’re ready, you tell me your conditions, and I’ll tell you when I’m ready. I’m the landlord, remember that, you work for me.”

Joshua did concede that the fight is likely to be next, despite discussion surrounding a warm-up bout, following a fatal car accident in Nigeria earlier this year, which killed two of his closest friends.

“I’ll be honest, the negotiations you go through, I’ve sat in there many times, there’s no problem, it’s what I do,” Joshua added. “I’m not here for clout, I’m here to fight. Contracts will be sent over, but you’ll probably see us in the ring next, more than likely.

“He’s the one who retired. I’ve stayed in the ring; it’s on him, he disappears, comes back, disappears. I’m not here to chase fame, I’m a real person. I’ll fight him or the next person. I’m in the big fights, I make the big fights, that’s what I told him.

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“That could be a warm-up fight, after what I saw tonight, I was in a serious incident, so I need to check out. There’s real stuff happening in my life. I’m not ducking anyone. I have to attend to, once I’m 100 percent, I’ll fight. I run the game, you know I run the game. I’m a serious fighter, I’m very strong, when I hit Fury, I’m going to hurt him.”

“I’m sorting some things out with my brothers; the brotherhood is taking care of things. Tyson Fury, if he’s serious, you’ll see us in the ring. The ball is in his court. We’ve been here a million times, once my signature is on the paper, it’s a fight. There’s no fight right now, I’ve been here three or four times with Wilder and Fury. It’s boring to me, for you at home it’s exciting.

“I don’t think he’ll be able to cope with me. It’d be hard work for him. I don’t want to talk too much.”

Fury boxed earlier in the evening in his first fight since December 2024, when he was outpointed by Oleksandr Usyk for the second time in a row, and the win over Makhmudov moved him closer to a long-awaited duel with Joshua.

Four months ago, when “AJ” knocked out YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in Miami, there was renewed confidence that Joshua would face compatriot Fury in 2026 – in a generational battle of former heavyweight champions.

But 10 days after beating Paul, Joshua was injured in a car crash in Nigeria, which claimed the lives of two of his teammates.

Although the accident seemed to leave Joshua’s fighting future up in the air, he soon returned to the gym, and his promoter Hearn talked up a summer return for the 36-year-old.

That bout was expected to be a warm-up for a possible showdown with Fury, 37, but with the pair facing off on Saturday, many fans will hope that the bout will be next for each boxer.

Australian teenager Gout Gout has run 200m faster than sprinting great Usain Bolt did at the same age.

The 18-year-old clocked a superb time of 19.67 seconds to win at his national championships on Sunday.

It was the first time that Gout had gone under the 20-second mark legally, after a wind-assisted 19.84 last season, and is the leading time in the world this year.

He had the quickest-ever time by a 16-year-old – setting a national record of 20.06 – when he burst on to the scene in 2024. Sunday’s mark in Sydney was quicker than the Jamaican eight-time Olympic champion’s time of 19.93 back in 2004.

Aidan Murphy, who was second to Gout, also beat the 20-second mark with a time of 19.88.

“This is what I’ve been waiting for,” said Gout, who was born in Queensland to parents from South Sudan.

“We have such incredible athletes in Australia and me being able to race these athletes, we push each other to the limits. Two Australians sub-20. I mean, this is amazing.

“There’s a big weight off my shoulders knowing I ran it legally, and I have the speed and my body to run times like that. So, it definitely feels great, and ready for more.”

Gout has indicated that he will skip the Commonwealth Games, which begin in Glasgow on 23 July, to focus on the World Under-20 Championships in Oregon in early August.

Tyson Fury has revealed his contingency plan if a long-awaited clash with Anthony Joshua fails to materialise.

The pair have been on a collision course for what feels like an age, yet now their all-British showdown finally seems as if it could come to fruition.

Or at least, this is what Turki Alalshikh implied at yesterday’s Netflix event, shortly after Fury made a successful return by unanimously outpointing Arslanbek Makhmudov.

It was not an entirely vintage performance from the 37-year-old, who often looked his age as he laboured through 12 rounds at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, shaking off 16 months of inactivity.

But still, it came as little surprise when Fury called out Joshua, his long-term rival, during his post-fight interview, urging him to sign on the dotted line.

Matching this enthusiasm, Alalshikh suggested their heavyweight dustup could soon be announced, while Joshua responded with a slightly different tone when handed the microphone.

Instead of playing Fury’s game, the 36-year-old decided to take a more measured approach, insisting that nothing is confirmed until both sides are satisfied with the deal.

But while Joshua represents Fury’s preferred option, ‘The Gypsy King’ equally said at his post-fight press conference that a trilogy showdown with Oleksandr Usyk could also make sense.

“I wanna fight Anthony Joshua – that’s it. Or, if AJ don’t want it, then let’s get Usyk in the trilogy. But I need some f**king fair play.”

Tyson Fury says that if Anthony Joshua doesn’t want to fight, he’ll take on Oleksandr Usyk in a trilogy bout.#FuryMakhmudovpic.twitter.com/pVEi5H52hY

— Netflix Sports (@netflixsports) April 11, 2026

Clearly, Fury has maintained his belief that, despite twice being outpointed by Usyk in 2024, he should have had his hand raised on both occasions.

The chance to exact his revenge therefore represents an enticing possibility, while Joshua, who has not fought since stopping Jake Paul in December, may still consider a ‘warm-up’ fight.

Paris-Roubaix is a bike race which rewards guile and experience, one for the battle-hardened pro rather than the wide-eyed youngster. Zoe Backstedt in some ways is both. At 21 she is among the peloton’s younger contingent – but she has an additional weapon in her arsenal: a family history of Paris-Roubaix going back more than 20 years.

Her father, Magnus Backstedt, took the biggest win of his career in the famous Roubaix velodrome in 2004; Zoe and older sister and fellow cyclist Elynor grew up re-watching, analysing and celebrating his race.

“It’s in the family to enjoy this race and to have a special connection to it,” the younger Backstedt tells The Independent over video call, a few days before the 2026 edition. “For me part of it is following what he’s done, and one day I would also like to have a cobblestone to go next to his.”

Magnus’ iconic cobblestone prize lives on a bookshelf in the Backstedt family living room, and his success means that Zoe not only knows the ins and outs of the race – it means she’s aware of what it feels like to lift the trophy, too. “I tell you, if you try and lift it above your head after a race, I don’t think I could do it,” she grins. “[The shelf] now has a dip in it, because it’s just that heavy.”

Magnus raced Paris-Roubaix eight times over the course of his career and has been imparting his wisdom ever since. “He’s told me every single story there is to tell about this race, about every single edition that he’s done, that it was dry, wet, different changes in the course, he knows everything. He knows where every single pothole is on the course, he could tell you literally to a T. So we’ve grown up learning this course as well, watching his race back because as a family, it makes us so proud of his achievement.”

When we speak Backstedt is fresh from a team recon of five of the 20 cobbled sectors, which make up just over 33km of the 143km women’s race. Her Canyon-SRAM-zondacrypto team rode the first three sectors, which are new to the course this year, and the infamous Carrefour de l’Arbre: the fourth-last sector and one of two rated five stars, the most gruelling of all.

“It’s like a two-parter, you have a really awful, aggressive part to start with, and then it goes across the road, you’ve got a nice” – she checks her wording – “nice, I don’t know, less aggressive sector with a bit of gravel on the side. I made the most of that today, saved myself from the cobblestones, and I’m going to go full in for those on Sunday.”

Many riders speak about Paris-Roubaix with a mix of respect and dread – there’s an element of masochism to the race – but Backstedt relishes it. “Just out there having a bit of fun, and the sun was shining in France – not Belgium,” she says, with the air of someone who has made that mix-up before. “It was super nice to see a bit of the course again.”

Backstedt has ridden Paris-Roubaix three times, finishing 46th on her debut at age 18 and upgrading that to 16th in 2024 and 15th last year. And the Red Bull athlete has every reason to hope she can crack the top 10, or go a step further this time round.

She will be one of the in-form riders on the start line in Denain and impressed in the hilly Tour of Flanders – the only other cobbled Monument – last Sunday. She finished fifth, her best-ever result in the race, backing up a fourth place in Dwars door Vlaanderen a few days prior.

The Welshwoman was part of an elite group including three-time Flanders winner Lotte Kopecky, eventual winner Demi Vollering and defending Paris-Roubaix champion champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot over the infamous Koppenberg hill, and later said she had “goosebumps” being in such elite company.

She said: “I was really proud of myself. I really didn’t expect to go into the day with the legs that I had and to be able to go over all of these iconic climbs, going over the Koppenberg in the front group of ten, with Kopecky, [Elisa] Longo Borghini, those kinds of riders, and be almost fighting for a podium – that was not on my bingo card for the day!”

Even so, she isn’t satisfied, adding: “It was a shame that I missed those front three that went [Vollering, Ferrand-Prevot and Puck Pieterse, who completed the podium], but what can you do?”

That result means she is full of confidence ahead of Paris-Roubaix, and with good reason: as a former world junior and under-23 cyclo-cross champion, she is well suited to difficult terrain.

She says: “I think it’s a super useful skill to have, just knowing how to handle uneven surfaces and conditions that are very unpredictable, especially if there’s rain at some point, if the cobblestones become super slippery.”

Her success against the clock – she has won both junior and under-23 world titles in time trials too – may also come in handy. “Time trialling is very much an individual pain, an individual effort. Cyclocross is the same: one hour, you’re not riding with any teammates, with tactics, you’re purely riding, constantly with a high heart rate, constantly thinking under pressure. And your whole body is completely dead at the end, the same feeling that I’d have at the end of a time trial.”

And the same as at the end of Paris-Roubaix. “It’s definitely one of those races that you hate in the moment,” she smiles. “And then once you cross the finish line, and you know that you can relax, it’s one of the nicest and most rewarding races. Even to finish, to finish first or last, is such a rewarding thing.

“Going across kilometres of cobblestones that you’re not naturally meant to do, it’s aggressive on your hands, on your legs, on your arms, on your body, all of your muscles are just so tense for four hours. I think that’s also what makes it one of my favourite races, it brings out the strongest riders. The ones that are the front are the ones that can handle all of the pain, that can handle everything that your body is going to go through.”

Unsurprisingly, she has high hopes for Sunday. “It’s my favourite race of the whole season, so I’m hoping that the team will give me the chance to be the leader,” she says frankly. “Of course the whole race is a little bit based on luck, you can have a puncture one kilometre before the most important sector, and then your whole race is done, or someone can crash in front of you. There’s so many unknowns that you can’t really go in with too much expectation.

“But for sure, I want to be better than last year. I mean, I would love to do a top five like I did on the weekend, but I know that’s also going to be hard, so no expectation, no pressure for myself. It’s just going and having fun, racing the bike, and see what I can do.”

And if the 21-year-old can come away with a slab of French rock it will be not just a triumph for her and the team, but for a family bound up in the history of this race, a triumph 22 years in the making.

Paris-Roubaix Femmes is live on TNT Sports from 4pm on Sunday 12 April. To find out more about Zoe Bäckstedt, head over to her Red Bull athlete page: https://www.redbull.com/gb-en/athlete/zoe-backstedt

Former India player Aakash Chopra has highlighted the Mumbai Indians’ (MI) selection conundrum heading into their IPL 2026 clash against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). He noted that the five-time champions have multiple choices to make in the bowling department, pointing out that virtually all their bowlers have proved very expensive.

MI will host RCB in the 20th game of IPL 2026 in Mumbai on Sunday, April 12. While the home team is placed eighth on the points table with two points from three games, the visitors have garnered four points from three matches and are third in the standings.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, ‘Aakash Chopra,’ the former India opener noted that MI have struggled with their bowling, with Jasprit Bumrah being the only bowler to have an economy of less than 10 in IPL 2026, and would have to choose between Trent Boult and Corbin Bosch and between Deepak Chahar and Ashwani Kumar in the seam-bowling department.

“Plenty of questions. A good team, but you (MI) have lost two of the three matches. It’s not a good story. Will you stay with Trent Boult? If you want to stay with Trent Boult, you will have to bowl him more overs with the new ball. Do you want to stay or go? You will have to answer that question,” Chopra said.

“Do you want to keep Deepak Chahar or play Ashwani Kumar? You will have to answer that question as well because the bowling is struggling. Only one bowler has an economy in single digits. Everyone else, who has played two or more matches, is in double digits,” he added.

Aakash Chopra also wondered whether the Mumbai Indians would want to try Raghu Sharma as a spinner, urging them to stick with Allah Ghazanfar ahead of Mitchell Santner. He added that MI might consider playing Will Jacks in place of Sherfane Rutherford if the England all-rounder is available.

“I have a suggestion for you” – Aakash Chopra on a potential change in RCB’s playing 12 for IPL 2026 clash vs MI

In the same video, Aakash Chopra wondered whether RCB should bring in Jacob Bethell at Phil Salt’s expense for their IPL 2026 clash against MI.

“If you (RCB) lose this, your situation will be like Delhi’s, with two wins and two losses. I have a suggestion for you. Do you want to play Jacob Bethell in place of Phil Salt? Phil Salt doesn’t keep in any case. Jitesh Sharma is doing the keeping,” he said.

The cricketer-turned-commentator pointed out that Bethell had scored a blazing century in the T20 World Cup 2026 semi-final against India at the same venue.

“I am thinking about Jacob Bethell because of how well he batted at this ground. He was absolutely brilliant in the T20 World Cup semi-final. Would you want to play him? Phil Salt is not scoring runs. You can make Devdutt Padikkal open. Bring Bethell in place of Phil Salt, and keep him at No. 3,” Chopra observed.

Aakash Chopra pointed out that Jacob Bethell will also give RCB another left-arm spin option. He highlighted that MI have many right-handers in their batting lineup.