By Jack Tiernan: Bob Arum says he wants to put together a big undisputed fight between heavyweight champions Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk next September.
Fans were hoping that Fury and Usyk would fight next, but it’s not possible to make that fight right now with both champions trapped with interim defenses they must make.
Arum would prefer WBC champion Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) and IBF/WBA/WBO champion Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) to meet in early 2022, but the two champs have fights they must get out of the way first.
Fury defends against Whyte in February or March
Usyk has a rematch with former Anthony Joshua that he needs to take care of before he can face Fury for the undisputed championship. Arum wanted the former IBF/WBA/WBO champion Joshua to step aside, but he wants his contractual rematch with Usyk.
Joshua is a good fighter, but Usyk will likely beat him again in their rematch, so there’s little worry that we could see a different outcome from the first fight between them last September.
Arum states that Fury will be defending against WBC mandatory Dillian Whyte in February or March in the UK. The Top Rank promoter Arum doesn’t sound worried about the risk involved in letting Fury fight the 33-year-old Whyte despite it being a possibly dangerous one.
Whyte has power but a poor chin and is fortunate that he’s still in the position as WBC mandatory, given his knockout loss to Alexander Povetkin last year. It’s unclear why the World Boxing Council kept Whyte as mandatory after being knocked out by Povetkin.
Even though Whyte defeated Povetkin in their rematch last March, the WBC should have set up another title eliminator.
It looks very odd with the way things have gone, and what added to that is Whyte pulling out of his October 30th fight against Otto Wallin, saying he had a hurt shoulder, which many boxing fans doubt. If Whyte is injured, why is he pushing to fight Fury? Why didn’t Whyte reschedule his fight with Wallin?
These are some of the questions boxing fans have about Whyte, and he’ll be going into the Fury fight under a dark cloud.
Joshua insisting on Usyk rematch
“Everybody on our side wants him to fight Usyk, but Usyk is obligated to Joshua, who has a rematch clause. Now there’s Dillian Whyte that is the mandatory challenger, and it becomes very, very complicated to go right to an Usyk fight,” said Bob Arum to MMA Hour on Tyson Fury needing to defend against his WBC mandatory Whyte next.
“So my hope is Usyk fights Joshua and Fury fights Dillian Whyte, and then Usyk, who is a great fighter, wins his fight, and Tyson Fury wins his fight, then they can fight a unification bout next September.
“I’d like to see him fight Dillian Whyte in the UK at the end of February no later than the beginning of March,” said Arum when asked when he wants Fury to defend against Whyte. “That’s what Fury has told me,” said Arum.
“He’s done his last five fights or six fights in the United States, and it’s time that he went back home to the UK to do another contest.
“When we do a unification fight, we’ll take a look at it and see the best venue for that fight,” said Arum.
Joshua is the one that is preventing Arum from making the Fury vs. Usyk right away, as he’s insisting on taking the rematch with Ukrainian next rather than stepping aside.
The decision by Joshua not to step aside could ultimately blow up in his face, with him losing to Usyk in the rematch.