By Charles Brun: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum wants the WBC to eliminate heavyweight champion Tyson Fury’s mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte, to get this “MEANINGLESS” fight out of the way so that they can focus on more essential matches like Anthony Joshua.
Arum says that the pandemic has wiped out three months and that the mandatory challengers will need to wait longer for them to get their title shot.
The WBC has told Whyte (27-1, 18 KOs) that he’ll be allowed to challenge for the title by February 2021. However, a much better fight between Fury and IBF/WBA/WBO champion Anthony Joshua is the one that fight fans want to see early next year.
The fans don’t want to watch Fury defend against Whyte in early 2021, and you can bet that Arum will be looking to make sure that isn’t required.
WBC making Fury their Franchise champion would fix things
What Arum should be asking for is to have the World Boxing Council elevate Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) to WBC Franchise champion because that would permanently get rid of his problem of being forced by the sanctioning body to face unpopular fighters like Dillian Whyte.
It’s surprising that Arum already hasn’t had a conversation with the WBC to have Fury made the Franchise champion. If Arum had done this, it would be allowed Whyte to fight for the vacant WBC title against the highest-ranked contender.
In this case, it would likely be Oscar Rivas. #2 Oleksandr Usyk is already the WBO mandatory for Joshua. #1 Wilder is facing Fury, so that leaves #3 Oscar Rivas.
One of Arum’s other fighters Vasiliy Lomachenko, was elevated to Franchise champion in 2019 by the WBC, which effectively allowed him to bypass his mandatory Devin Haney.
Similarly, Canelo Alvarez was elevated to Franchise champion in 2019, and that saved him the trouble of defending his WBC 160-pound title against mandatory Jermall Charlo.
“We will be talking to the organizations to eliminate mandatories, or to postpone them all for at least one year,” said Arum to skysports.com. “I am sick and tired of being forced, with my marquee fighters, to fight meaningless fights against mandatories that mean nothing.”
It won’t make Whyte feel too happy to hear Arum talking about wanting the sanctioning bodies eliminator mandatories. Arum is talking about Whyte, who is the biggest impediment to Joshua vs. Fury taking place in early 2021.
Whyte has been waiting 11 months for his title shot
Whyte complains that he’s been waiting for 1,000+ days for his title shot against the WBC champion. However, the reality is that Whyte has only been the WBC mandatory for 11 months.
Whyte beat Oscar Rivas in the WBC title eliminator last July. Before that, Whyte was ranked #1 with the WBC since 2017, but he chose not to fight in a title eliminator in 2018 when the sanctioning body ordered him to face Luis Ortiz.
“These organizations will be cognizant that the mandatories must be pushed into the future because fighters,” said Arum.
Whyte might end up having to wait until 2022 for him to get his title shot at the WBC champion Eddie Hearn wants Joshua to fight Fury twice next year.