Despite Bob Arum’s claims that Tyson Fury’s next fight would see him enter the ring without his WBC title on the line, a decision he claimed received Mauricio Sulaiman’s blessing, the sanctioning body’s plans have changed. They’ve now ordered Fury and interim champ Dillian Whyte to come to terms by January 11th, otherwise they’ll head to a purse bid that would leave Fury the beneficiary of an 80/20 split.
Was Arum misinformed? Did Suleiman, a notorious cretin, change his mind? Hell if I know.
If you’re curious why the WBC would allow such a ridiculous split in what’s ostensibly a consolidation, here’s the relevant section of their rulebook:
Division of Proceeds in a Purse Offer. The net purse offer (after deduction of all sanction fees payable to the WBC hereunder) shall be divided as follows:
(a) first, 10% of the total shall be set aside as a bonus for the winner of the contest, then, of the remainder,
(b) 70% of the remaining 90% shall be for the champion and 30% of the remaining 90% shall be for the challenger in title bouts; and
(c) 50% of the remaining 90% to each contender in the case of vacant titles or elimination bouts; provided, however, that the WBC Board of Governors, may by a majority vote, authorize a modification of the division of purse offer proceeds between boxers in a purse offer in particular cases, such as consideration of outstanding marketing value of one of the boxers, as the WBC shall determine in its sole discretion. The modification of the split of the remainder shall be limited to 60-40% and 55-45%, except in the most exceptional circumstances, in which the split may be modified to 50-50% at the WBC’s sole discretion.
The key here is that whole “outstanding marketing value of one of the boxers” bit. As for why they’re ignoring their “modification of the split” restrictions, which state pretty explicitly that it can’t go wider than 70/30, it’s because the WBC doesn’t give a shit about their own regulations.
I’ll be frank: I have no clue where this’ll end and I doubt anyone involved does, either. We’ll keep passing along what we hear.