By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn says the Tyson Fury vs. Dillian Whyte fight will be ordered by the WBC this month at the convention in Mexico for the sanctioning body. Hearn states the negotiations for the Fury-Whyte fight will commence immediately after that.
Interestingly, Hearn is showing no hint of doubt in his mind when speaking about the Fury vs. Whyte match and seems to be intentionally talking about the contest as if it’s 100% going to happen.
The reality is that Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) and his promoters at Top Rank still haven’t confirmed whether they will take the fight with Whyte next.
Should Fury fight Joe Joyce next?
Promoter Bob Arum said it’s up to Fury, but he quite likes the idea of matching him against Joe Joyce next, an opponent that would create interest from UK boxing fans, perhaps more than a match against Whyte.
The problem with Fury choosing Whyte is that he bailed on a fight against Otto Wallin scheduled for October 30th, and the boxing public doesn’t believe the shoulder injury excuse Dillian gave. They think Whyte faked the injury to avoid a potential loss to the big 6’6″ Swedish heavyweight Wallin.
Whyte’s popularity, such as it is, took a massive hit due to him bailing on the Wallin fight. Things were already bad for Whyte, given that he’d been knocked out cold last year by 40-year-old Alexander Povetkin.
The combination of Whyte being perceived as faking his shoulder injury and his knockout loss to Povetkin makes him a poor opponent for Fury to fight.
If Fury and his promoter Arum choose Joyce as his next opponent, you can’t blame them one bit for doing so because he’s unbeaten and not being followed around by the skunk-like stench that Whyte is with fans believing he faked his injury to swerve the Wallin fight.
“Fury will fight Dillian Whyte [next], Usyk will rematch AJ, and then probably the winners will fight, and then all the belts will get fragmented and then you’ll see a few more heavyweight champions,” said Eddie Hearn on Instagram when asked how he sees the heavyweight division playing out in the next two years.
“I expect Dillian’s fight with Tyson Fury to be ordered at the WBC convention, and then negotiations will begin,” said Hearn in sounding hopeful.
I wouldn’t assume anything if I were Hearn, but you can understand why he’s speaking as if there’s no doubt that Fury will take the fight with Whyte.
If you’re Fury and you’ve got a massive payday waiting for you against the winner of the Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk 2 fight in 2022, do you want to fight a desperate guy like Dillian Whyte? Charles Brun would vacate the WBC title so fast that Whyte and Hearn’s heads would be spinning.
Should Fury go the Franchise route?
Fury needs to get rid of the WBC strap and tell them to elevate him to Franchise champion, which would be the equivalent of the Queen in a game of chess.
Fury can then move in any direction he wants to pick his opposition, and it wouldn’t matter if the WBC ordered him to defend against Whyte.
“Unless the deal is right, why wouldn’t you want it to go to a purse bid?” said Hearn to iFL TV about his father Barry saying the Fury vs. Whyte fights negotiations should go to a purse bid.
“I would love to put it on DAZN, and I will make a move to do that. But will Bob Arum and Tyson Fury be with me to promote the show on DAZN? Probably not. So unless they come up with a great offer, there’s a chance it’ll go to a purse bid.
“If it goes to a purse bid, he’s [Whyte] probably going to get the most money he could. First things first, let’s get the official negotiations ordered [between Fury and Whyte] at the WBC convention, and then we can start those negotiations and see if a deal can be reached. If not, it’ll go to purse bids.
“He [Whyte] needs me to create the deal but also to create leverage,” said Hearn.
