By Sean Jones: Eddie Hearn says Tyson Fury should be required to make a mandatory defense of his WBC heavyweight title if he faces Francis Ngannou. Hearn says Furry will be getting 40-50 million for the Ngannou exhibition.
Oleksandr Usyk’s promoter Alex Krassyuk wants Fury to be stripped of his WBC title if he takes the exhibition match. It’s up to the WBC to press Fury to defend against his mandatory because without them putting his feet to the fire, he’s going to fight whoever he pleases.
Fury already fought 39-year-old journeyman Derek Chisora in his last fight, and that old guy didn’t deserve to fight for a world title. He’d lost 3 out of his last 4 fights. Fury is sitting on his WBC title, looking to make some easy coin instead of taking legacy fights against Usyk and Anthony Joshua.
Hearn doesn’t feel that’s necessary, but he thinks Fury should be required to defend against mandatory rather than being allowed to sit on his WBC title without defending it.
Hearn notes that Fury hasn’t made a mandatory defense of his WBC title since last year in April, which was 15 months ago.
The World Boxing Council’s rules are that their champions are required to make annual mandatory defenses of their titles, but Fury has yet to do that.
Instead of following the WBC’s rules, Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) is reportedly planning on fighting former UFC champion Ngannou in an exhibition.
“Fury is fighting Ngannou, and that’ll be announced, I think, Saudi today, or is it tomorrow? Whatever it is,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV reacting to Oleksandr Usyk’s promoter Alex Krassyuk saying Tyson Fury should be stripped of his WBC heavyweight title if he faces Francis Ngannou in an exhibition match.
“Should he be stripped of his WBC title? Probably not, but you should have a mandatory. I mean, the rules stay in the WBC, I believe, that every 12 months, there’s a mandatory challenger, and the last mandatory challenger was Dillian Whyte back in; I’m not even sure where that was. Yeah, back in April, when that was 13 or 14 months ago.
The WBC could force Fury to defend against his mandatory, but will they? It’s doubtful because they obviously like having Fury as their champion.
“So I don’t see why he [Fury] shouldn’t have a mandatory, especially when he’s fighting Francis Ngannou, but I don’t think you can blame Tyson Fury for making a load of money to fight Francis Ngannou,” said Hearn. “But you can’t come out and say you’re about this and you’re about that.
“The Usyk fight was there; everyone knows that, and he chose not to fight him. Again, I go back to if you really want to fight, you make it happen. The Usyk fight was there for him in Saudi for a load of money.
“He chose not to do it. He chose to fight Francis Ngannou, but I don’t begrudge the man. I mean, he said like he’s going to be a 100 to 1.
“They could fight a million times, and Francis Ngannou wouldn’t win the fight, and if Fury is going to get 40-50 million to fight him, good luck to him, but he doesn’t really want undisputed legacy, but everyone’s different.
“He’s probably thinking, ‘I couldn’t care less about legacy. Give me 40 million. Thank you. Sweet.’ I get it,” said Hearn about Fury.
