Tyson Fury explained that he and Anthony Joshua need to win their next fights if they want to meet in the ring.
When both were champions the pair came close to making an undisputed fight, but Fury instead had to meet his obligation for a trilogy rematch against Deontay Wilder, and that led to Joshua defending his belts - unsuccessfully - against Oleksandr Usyk.
Usyk now fights Fury for the undisputed status on May 18 on DAZN PPV, while Joshua’s next bout is on Friday against Francis Ngannou, also live on DAZN PPV.
The winner of those two match-ups are set to finally meet in the ring, but first there may need to be a Fury vs. Usyk rematch, and with all three boxers well into their thirties, there is no guarantee one or more of them might soon retire.
That would open up Filip Hrgovic to enter the frame as the IBF mandatory.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Fury set the scene, explaining: "Turki (Turki Al-Sheikh, chair of General Authority for Entertainment in Saudi Arabia) said the winner of this fight will get a shot at the winner of mine and Usyk's rematch.
"Me and Usyk have two fights lined up this year so the winner of that fight will get to fight the winner of this fight.
"There's a lot on the line. When you're a world heavyweight contender or whatever he (Joshua) is these days, there's a lot of risk and not much reward other than money, which he has a lot of."
Discussing Joshua’s defeats to Usyk, he added: "He's been busted by Usyk a couple of times already, we all saw that.
"He just doesn't have the guy's number, leave him to me, the sad little man I'll slay him, twice if he wants it, leave him to the GK (Gypsy King).
"Then the Battle of Britain we can get on if he gets past this big fella (Ngannou), which is not a formality because he's a big man who can punch. Knockout chaos is definitely a great game."
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