Many people have been waiting for the long awaited return of former world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, and among those eager to see 'The Gypsy King' back is WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders, who took his record to 26-0 with an impressive victory over David Lemieux.

Fury and Saunders spent time earlier in the year training together in Spain, and in an recent interview, Saunders was quoted to have saying: "Tyson is back training and is loving boxing again. He is getting his mind set ahead of a date for the new year."

Due to how close the two are, does this mean the Fury camp is trying to line up a return fight in the near future?

If so, who could it be against, as Fury will need a testing opponent yet he won't want to be thrown into the lions den too quickly after such a long time away from the sport.

Again, when Saunders was asked who he'd like to see Fury fight, he said: "Dillian Whyte".

A very quick, and a very simple response, but he did go further into his reasoning for that choice.

"He's not a pushover, and he's a good fighter. But, I'd like to see him fight Dillian Whyte because that would show is he still the Tyson Fury, which I believe he is.

"Whyte is a good, tough opponent. I believe Tyson would be the favourite, but it's a fight I would like to see."

[Scroll to 10:00 in the below video to see Billy Joe Saunders talk about Tyson Fury's return fight]

Heavyweight boxing fans will know of Whyte's quality and danger, as when he fought Anthony Joshua, while he lost the fight, he gained a lot of fans' respect as a fighter as he shook AJ with a powerful left hook early in the second round.

As for Anthony Joshua, fans are hearing rumours that a fight between the two British heavyweights could be set up for the end of 2018, with Joshua hoping to have unified the division by then.

That would set up a huge British heavyweight world title encounter between Fury and Joshua in what would surely get fans excited.