By Charles Brun: WBC interim heavyweight champion Dillian Whyte wants champion Tyson Fury to start the negotiations for a fight between them.
Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) and his promoters are confident that WBC champion Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) will take the fight, but thus there’s no sign yet from him or his management team that he will.
The World Boxing Council will be meeting at their convention on November 14th, and they’ll likely order Fury to defend his WBC heavyweight title against Whyte and give him a set time for the negotiations.
Fury with a lot of options
Tyson doesn’t have to fight Whyte if he doesn’t want to because he’s got a big payday fight waiting for him in 2022. Why take a small-money battle against a desperate fighter like Whyte when he can make way more against the big names?
Fury’s options:
- Toss WBC strap in the trash can
- Joe Joyce
- Ask to be elevated to Franchise champion
- Dare WBC to strip him
With the grueling fight that Fury just went through against Deontay Wilder on October 9th, it won’t be surprising if he lets the WBC know that he has no interest in being told what to do right now.
Fury is better off taking a voluntary defense or, better yet, waiting until the rematch between Anthony Joshua and IBF/WBA/WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk plays out next March to fight the winner.
Whyte is counting on Fury being given no choice by the WBC but to defend against him or lose his title.
If that happens, we could see Dillian elevated to the new champion, or he would have to face the highest-ranking contender willing to fight for the vacant WBC title.
Wilder is the #1 ranked contender in the WBC’s rankings, but it’s unknown whether the ‘Bronze Bomber’ would be interested in fighting for the belt against a non-popular heavyweight like Whyte.
If Whyte can get his hands on the WBC title after it’s vacated or stripped from Fury, it’ll be interesting to see if the Joshua vs. Usyk winner chooses to fight him or if they’ll still go ahead and face the belt-less Gypsy King?
The money from the Joshua-Usyk 2 winner fighting Fury would dwarf the dough from fighting Whyte.
Fury hasn’t reached out to Whyte
“We don’t know yet; we have to see. Tyson Fury hasn’t reached out yet. We don’t know what Tyson Fury is going to do. He might retire,” said Dillian Whyte to DAZN when asked when his fight with Fury would take place.
“He might go off on a binge, or he might just say, ‘I don’t want to fight him.’ Let’s wait and see. And he himself says from six in the morning to twelve at night. I don’t know what I’m going to do.
“I’m ready to go. I’m going to rest for a few more weeks, and then I’m going to have a scan. And I’m ready to go.
“That’s a fight I’m risking it all for. Who cares about me fighting Otto Wallin? People want to see me fighting Tyson Fury.
“It’s a no-brainer. Tyson Fury, baby!” said Whyte when asked what was next for him. The next logical fight is me and him. He [Fury] says he wants to come home [to the UK].
“What better fight for him to come home to fight me in a stadium. It’s a massive fight all around the world, but it’s bigger here [England],” said Whyte.
If Fury hasn’t made it known by now that he intends on fighting Whyte next, you have to take that as a sign that he’s NOT going to fight him next.
Under those circumstances, Whyte and his promoter Eddie Hearn need to stop banging the drum for the Fury fight and start thinking about a good contingency plan.
Tyson won’t be dictated to
“The position Tyson is in, he has all the options in the world,” said Francis Warren to Boxing Social when asked which direction Fury will go for his next fight.
“Conversations will be had, and people will know when the decision has been made.
“I can’t see Tyson being dictated to, to be honest,” said Francis when asked if the Fury vs. Whyte fight will go to a purse bid. “Fury vs. Whyte if it happens?
“I think Tyson does a real job. No one really gets close to Tyson Fury. He’s far and above the majority of the heavyweights on the planet,” said Warren.
The WBC won’t force Fury to fight Whyte if he doesn’t want to take that fight. If they try to force the issue, they’ve got to know that they could wind up seeing their belt rendered null & void by it being vacated by Fury.
