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While Tyson Fury aims to solidify his next opponent, his younger brother will beat him back into the ring.
BoxingScene.com has learned that Tommy Fury has been tabbed to fight on the undercard of the recently announced Floyd Mayweather-Deji exhibition bout on November 13 at Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. An opponent is being finalized for the unbeaten light heavyweight, with Paul Bamba—a Puerto Rican light heavyweight based out of New York City—as the frontrunner to land the assignment.
The timing would put Manchester’s Fury (8-0, 4KOs) two weeks out from the next fight of his longtime out-of-ring rival Jake Paul (5-0, 4KOs), who will next fight Anderson Silva on October 29 at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona. Paul and Fury were twice scheduled to meet, last December 18 in Tampa and rescheduled plans for August 6 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Fury withdrew from both events, citing an injury and illness in not being able to make his way to Tampa and then visa issues preventing him from entering the U.S. earlier this summer.
Just one fight has followed for Fury during that stretch, a six-round points win over Daniel Bocianski on April 23 at Wembley Stadium. The fight took place on the undercard of his older brother, Tyson Fury (32-0-1, 23KOs) who defended his lineal/WBC heavyweight championship in a sixth-round knockout of Dillian Whyte atop a BT Sport Box Office/ESPN+ Pay-Per-View event.
Bamba (5-2, 4KOs) will be fighting for the fourth time this year, though in his first career fight outside of The Americas. The 33-year-old light heavyweight—who is promoted by Rising Star Promotions—only turned pro last January, fighting exclusively in Mexico during his first year and who has fought just once in the U.S.—a surprising four-round, split decision defeat to Derrick Vann on August 20 in Atlantic City.
The setback was bookended by separate wins in Colombia, including a second-round knockout of winless Francisco Morelos on September 8 in Santiago de Tolu.
The 23-year-old Fury remains hopeful of a showdown with Paul. The two have enjoyed a contentious rivalry through social media and their own press conferences, though yet to bring it to the ring. Such hopes were restored over the weekend, as the rest of Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions team was in Fury’s hometown of Manchester, England in support of seven-division titlist Amanda Serrano (43-2-1, 30KOs) who unified the WBC/IBF/WBO/Ring Magazine featherweight titles in a ten-round win over Sarah Mahfoud.
A conversation between Fury and Paul was captured on camera after the fight. Paul was in training camp and unable to make the trip as he reached out to Serrano via FaceTime following the Puerto Rican superstar’s latest win, when she passed the phone to the surprise but welcomed guest in her team locker room.
“Hey, what’s up Jake,” Fury laughed. “I was expecting to see you here tonight!”
“Tommy let’s make the fight happen buddy,” Paul insisted during the playful exchange. “Let’s make it happen.”
For now, the next fight for Fury will happen in Dubai. His yet-to-be-announced placement on the Mayweather-Deji card is the first-known undercard slot. The main event was only confirmed on Monday, barely 30 hours after Mayweather (50-0, 27KOs) faced Japanese MMA star Mikuru Asakura whom he stopped in the second round of their exhibition Saturday evening in Saitama, Japan.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox