By Edward Chaykovsky

Several years ago, former unified heavyweight champion Tyson Fury was shouting verbal abuse at Tony Bellew and his close friend David Price.

Attempting to verbally bait Price, the controversial Fury had claimed that the Olympic bronze medal winner and Bellew were homosexual lovers - and Fury vowed to slap both of  them in the face.

At that time, Bellew was a light heavyweight contender and a fight with Fury seemed like a fantasy dream.

Fast forward to the present, Bellew has become a very successful cruiserweight and last year captured the WBC championship in that division. And last Saturday he pulled off an early candidate for "Upset of The Year" by moving up to the heavyweight division and stopping former two division champion David Haye in the eleventh round.

Haye was scheduled to face Fury a few years ago, but withdrew from two scheduled dates due to injury.

Last week, Fury announced that he was going to return to the ring on May 13 - provided he's able to reclaim a license from the British Boxing Board of Control. Fury has not fought since beating Wladimir Klitschko in November 2015.

Speaking on TalkSports' Drivetime, Bellew did little to dampen speculation that he could face Fury after sharing a picture of himself and Fury on social media.

“I didn’t say anything. I just put a picture up – no one is being bright – this clown last week labelled me as a politician. I was honoured,” Bellew said. “It was exactly what I put with the emoji flicking his chin – thinking – it’s just a thought, a thought for now. You’ve asked me would I fight Tyson? Why wouldn’t I?”

Peter Fury, head trainer and uncle of Tyson, also likes the idea of that fight.

"I think it would be exciting," he said. "It would be a local derby, wouldn't it? "It would be good," Peter told Sky Sports.