Matchroom kingpin Eddie Hearn revealed Tyson Fury rejected the opportunity to fight some of the biggest names in British heavyweight boxing in favour of fighting opponents of the calibre of Sefer Seferi.

Fury made his comeback to the ring last Saturday in his hometown of Manchester after two-and-a-half years out of the ring.

The contest was viewed by many as ‘circus-like and farcical’ as the two men barely traded blows for the opening two rounds.

The pair embraced, kissed, and even showboated, circling each other around the ring before both stopping as a brawl broke out in the crowd during the second round.

When Fury eventually began to put some combinations together and land some shots, the 39-year-old Albanian decided to concede after being clipped by an uppercut in the dying moments of the fourth round.

The spectacle was universally criticised as boxing fans expected to see more from the former unified heavyweight champion.

Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn, however, stated that the fight played out exactly how he had predicted,

“You can’t call yourself the lineal heavyweight champion of the world and say ‘I will go back in with Joshua or Wilder in my first fight’ and then fight Sefer Seferi,” he told iFL TV.

“Don’t expect anyone better for the next few. This is the problem. What he said, there is an element of truth to that, he did deserve an easy one but Seferi isn’t even a boxer really.

“He’s the number two Albanian cruiserweight, number one was his brother. He was Ali-shuffling.

“My worry was always that Fury would do this and devalue himself in the bigger fights, making those fights even tougher to make.

“When we were talking to sign him, I said ‘look, I understand you want an easy one’. I’ll give you an example, I said to him he could fight Travis Kauffman. That was a guy I wanted him to fight in his first fight back.

“He won’t fight anywhere at the level of Kauffman for four fights he tells me. I said he could fight Kauffman, then he could fight Tony Bellew, Dillian Whyte and Anthony Joshua. That is my four-fight plan. That is probably about £30 million in his pocket right there.

“But he wanted four fights against a lower level – but it is going to kill his credibility and kill his value. Is he still a talented fighter? Of course he is although he didn’t look it.

“Is he still the same fighter? You’d think so. He’s done incredibly well to even get back in the gym.”

Hearn clearly believes that Fury has missed out on a massive pay-day and has set the standard far too low for his long-awaited comeback to the ring.

Wythenshaw-born fighter Fury is set to continue his comeback at Windsor Park in Belfast on August 18. Fury will fight on the undercard for the event which will be headlined by Belfast native Carl Frampton.