Posted on 01/27/2022
By: Sean
With the click ticking, WBC and lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and longtime contender Dillian Whyte have until tomorrow to agree to a fight contract or the WBC will send the match to purse bid. That means the promotion for the bout will fall to the highest bidder. There’s been a lot of talk lately about who Fury will fight next. Things are always so wild with boxing that it’s nearly impossible to say with any certainty, but the evidence is now pointing in the direction of Fury’s fellow Englishman, Whyte. Fury, as is his nature, is approaching matters aggressively (at least in public).
“I can’t wait to punch Whyte’s face in!” Sky Sports quotes Fury as saying. “I’ll give him the best hiding he’s ever had…Whyte, train hard! Because you are getting annihilated.” As of Thursday, Fury seemed to suggest that the bout had been, or was on the verge of, getting made. “Who else can’t wait for the fight,” he tweeted above to a promotional image of he and Whyte, “the best of Britain.” Part of the reason this match is difficult to get made appears to be the fact that the WBC originally ordered that Fury was to get 80% of all the money the bout would earn – no doubt a steep pay discrepancy.
To make matters even more complicated, there was talk of Fury fighting multi-tilist Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world. For that fight to happen next for either fighter, however, step aside money would have to be paid. Needless to say, Anthony Joshua, who lost his belts to Usyk last year and who is eager for a rematch, doesn’t appear interested in stepping aside. “Joshua and Eddie Hearn are the worst businessmen in history,” Fury has recently stated, “today they lost $90m.”
Fury is fresh off a brilliant performance in his third fight with the hard hitting former WBC kingpin Deontay Wilder. As for Whyte, the 34 year old vet had a terrific comeback last March when when he stopped Alexander Povetkin, who had previously knocked him out, in four. Whyte’s only other loss was to Anthony Joshua and that was back in 2015. A battle against the undefeated Fury would mark the greatest opportunity of Whyte’s nearly decade long career.