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By Chris Williams: WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman is saying that his organization won’t stand in the way of the Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury clash for the undisputed heavyweight title clash in 2021. However, Sulaiman has zero control over the mediation process that Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) is currently going through with former WBC Deontay Wilder.

If Fury loses the arbitration hearing with Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs), he’ll have to face the dangerous ‘Bronze Bomber’ next, and there’s nothing the World Boxing Council will be able to do about it.

Fury wants to serve Wilder so he can take the money fight against IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs) in early 2021. Wilder and Fury were under contract to fight a third time, but Gypsy King and his management are saying that the contract has expired.

Joshua and Fury have commitments

Team Fury wants to move on without taking the risky fight, which has the chance of going badly for Fury. With the way that Wilder starched Fury in their first fight in 2018, it makes sense for his management to be saying the rematch contract ran out.

It’s also a very weak move to sidestep Wilder. You can imagine an NFL team choosing not to play in the championship game and jump straight into the Super Bowl without earning it?

The right thing for Fury to do would be to give Wilder his trilogy match as part of the original contract, but it’s so risky. Fury doesn’t have the greatest chin on earth, and an angry Wilder, out for revenge, is going to be looking to knock him cold. Someone woke the sleeping giant Deontay, and he’s looking to put a hurt on Fury if the mediator sides in his favor.

Besides the mediation forcing Fury to face Wilder, Joshua still needs to best his IBF mandatory Kubrat Pulev on December 12th and then defeat his WBO mandatory Oleksandr Usyk in early 2021.

Joshua can vacate his WBO title to steer around Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs), but then he’d lose a big selling point for his first of two fights against the 6’9″ Fury in 2021. AJ and Fury want all four belts on the line for that fight, as it makes it more marketable to the casual boxing fans.

If Joshua defends against Usyk, that’s going to throw off his plans to fight Fury twice in 2021. Also, there would be an added risk of Usyk beating Joshua, which is quite possible. Joshua is a flawed fighter, and not reliable as a champion, as we saw in his loss to Andy Ruiz Jr last year.

WBC supports Fury vs. Joshua

“To see this showdown, Fury-Joshua, would be tremendous for everyone in the sport of boxing. We will absolutely support it,” WBC president Sulaiman said to skysports.com.

“The WBC has no blocks right now. There is no mandatory contender. There is an issue that we are aware that Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder have some sort of mediation process going on and that’s the only thing, but we don’t have any details,” said Sulaiman.

The most difficult part of all this is Joshua needing to deal with Usyk, who has made it clear that he’s not going to step aside so that Joshua and Fury can spend all of 2021 fighting. Why would Usyk do that? That would be an insane more on his part, as he would need to stay busy fighting at least twice.

If you saw how bad Usyk looked against Dereck Chisora, you’ll know that it’s not a given that he beats any of the top contenders in the division. So it’s not good for Usyk to wait for his title shot because there’s too much risk of him losing to someone while he waits.

Also, there would be no guarantee for Usyk that he’ll get a chance to fight the winner of the second Fury vs. Joshua fight.

What happens if the winner of the second Joshua-Fury fight chooses to vacate the WBO belt after their second clash? If they pull that move, Usyk will have waited for nothing for an entire year.