It's been over two years since Tyson Fury has been in a boxing ring, but now that he's been cleared to fight, he's wasting no time in pursuing potential opponents.

As of late, his main target has been current WBA-IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, who Fury has mocked several times on social media.

Fury, who was stripped of the WBA, WBO and IBO heavyweight titles due to an investigation into anti-doping and other medical issues, seeks to return to the ring in a big way. He has recently been back in the gym, working to lose weight and get back into his championship form.

Joshua's promoter, Eddie Hearn, recently weighed in on the potential fight between the two Englishmen, and he insists the fight could happen in late 2018, at the earliest.

In an interview with ESPN, Hearn says that before this fight happens, he wants to put Joshua up against other big names like Joseph Parker and Deontay Wilder.

However, there is still plenty that can go wrong before Joshua vs Fury actually comes to fruition and Hearn also revealed he thinks there are two potential reasons why the fight could fall through.

"He [Joshua] will have to be in some epic fights. There are only two reasons it doesn't happen," Hearn said.

"The first is that Tyson Fury has lost all sense of reality for a deal for that fight with AJ.

"He wants a lot more than a 50-50 split, which is a joke. Second reason is that he can't get himself into a physical condition which is good enough to fight AJ."

Hearn also says that Fury would need "one or two fights" before he can fight Joshua, and he would have to be in better shape than ever before if he were to have a chance against the champion.

On Joshua, Fury recently spoke to BT Sport, stating that he believes the champion cannot beat Deontay Wilder.

He said: "If those two fought I believe Wilder would knock him out.

“You can’t make a power man a speed man and without speed and movement in heavyweight boxing you’re a limited fighter.

"He’s still the same man he was when I last boxed two years ago. He’s still the same, just a bit heavier and with a few more muscles on him. That’s it really."

Joshua, who spoke this past weekend at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony, dismissed the taunts as "what I deal with in my industry", adding that he had not heard Fury's latest claim that he was nothing more than a "muscle-bound carthorse".

It will be interesting to see what happens now that the battle lines have been drawn, but Hearn says that there is still a long way to go before even considering promoting the fight.

Though he knows this would be the biggest fight in British boxing, it is still a long shot, particularly with Fury, as he still has a lot of work to do to get back in shape and still needs to apply for a new boxing licence.