By Radio Rahim

Former unified champion Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) believes that he firmly holds the rightful claim to the heavyweight throne.

Fury has been out of the ring since November 2015, when he traveled over to Germany to shock the world by winning a twelve round unanimous decision over Wladimir Klitschko to capture the IBF, WBA, WBC, IBO heavyweight titles.

During 2016, the boxer battled depression and substance abuse and eventually lost his boxing license.

Since his long stint of inactivity, WBC champion Deontay Wilder, IBF/WBA/IBO champion Anthony Joshua and WBO champion Joseph Parker are all staking their claims to the heavyweight throne.

Fury believes that he still holds the keys to the kingdom, based on his status as the lineal champion due to his victory over Klitschko. 

"I have lineal status. My lineal status dates back to the days of John L. Sullivan. All of the hundreds of years of boxing and I've got that belt. These guys can have some alphabet titles, but they will never be considered the best of their era until they beat me, because I'm the man who beat the man, who beat the man, who beat the man - going back 200 years," Fury told BoxingScene.com.

Fury is back in training and expects to return to the ring by April of next year. He's losing a lot of the excess weight that was gained during his time on the bench, and now he plots his comeback.

The British Boxing Board of Control will be meeting next month to discuss Fury's request to regain his boxing license.

Fury sounds very confident in his chances to receive a positive ruling from the BBBoC.

"I'm going to be licensed again very, very soon. That is not going to be a problem. I'm going to be back with a capital B. I'm one of the UK's homegrown sons, why would they not want to give me a license," Fury said.