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Posted on 12/28/2021
By: Sean Crose
It won’t be for his WBC heavyweight title, but Bob Arum says Tyson Fury will be back in action this March. With that in mind, the Top Rank honcho doesn’t appear to be interested in pitting Fury against unknown competition. For former heavyweight multi-titlist Andy Ruiz Jr and divisional contender Robert Helenius are on the agenda. The casting here is solid, especially when one considers the fact that Fury’s last fight – against arch rival Deontay Wilder – was an instant classic. “It was as exciting a heavyweight fight as you could get,” Arum told iFLTV in an interview posted Tuesday. “That certainly was a highlight of the year.”
In the interview, Arum indicates he want Fury to face longtime contender Dillian Whyte, but Whyte and his camp are going into arbitration over the purse. “It’s unfortunate in the sense that Dillian Whyte could have that fight….but they’re in our view very greedy with what they’re asking,” says Arum. “Dillian Whyte, really, and his people should come to the table and make the deal to fight Tyson Fury, period, end of story.” Seeing as how that isn’t happening, at least at the moment, Ruiz and Helenius look to be getting a chance to step up to the plate.
With that in mind, Arum says Fury’s next fight will be in “in Manchester or in Las Vegas, depending on who the opponent is.” Breaking it down, the veteran promoter says: “We’re looking at Andy Ruiz is a possibility, he’s available.” He adds that “this big Finnish kid who looked very good…on the Fury-Wilder card, Helenius” is also in the mix. “Those are the two principle guys,” he says. “I guess If it’s Helenius we do it in the UK and if it was Ruiz we’d do the fight in Las Vegas because Fury has endeared himself so much to the American fan base.”
Fury’s third battle with Wilder went down last October, and stunned a lot of people thanks to the absolute war waged by the two combatants that night. With matters now seemingly settled between himself and Wilder, and with Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua looking to fight a second time for the heavyweight belts he’s not in possession of, the towering Englishman is going to want to keep busy. He’s also clearly looking for fights that won’t be walks in the park – at least not on paper, that is.