Tyson Fury could be upgraded to a ‘franchise’ champion in a bid to fight Anthony Joshua and avoid taking on Dillian Whyte.
Heavyweight ruler Fury is due to take on Deontay Wilder for a third time later this year with Australia, New Zealand and Macau touted as potential venues. Victory for the Brit would then set up a fight against mandatory challenger Whyte who holds the interim version of the WBC title.
But Fury instead wants to take on fellow world champion Anthony Joshua in order to establish the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis. And his promoter Bob Arum believes he could do so if the WBC agrees to elevate him to their ‘franchise’ champion.
The sanctioning body created the controversial title last year with Vasyl Lomachenko and Canelo Alvarez the initial recipients. Doing so with Fury would allow him to avoid his mandatory responsibilities and see Whyte installed as the ‘regular’ champion.
“Fury and Joshua, whether they fight once or twice or whatever, Dillian Whyte can make a big name for himself fighting in the interim and then, when he fights the winner, can make a huge payday,” Arum told Pro Beez of PepTalkUK.
“There has to be a lot of sense involved, his management can’t push something that makes no sense in my opinion. The reaction to a lot of these mandatories, what the WBC did was to make a guy like Canelo ‘franchise’ champion [and] to make Lomachenko ‘franchise’ champion.
“That allowed Devin Haney to fight for the WBC title and not to bother Lomachenko with a mandatory fight. Particularly while these guys were fighting the top, top person around.
“Nobody’s asking the WBC to make Tyson Fury a ‘franchise’ champion, but if Dillian Whyte pursues this idea of fighting Tyson Fury before he fought Wilder again and then Joshua, that would be the way I think the WBC would go.
“The public is not stupid, the public knows who’s the champion. Particularly now when we’ve had this period where we haven’t had fights, I think we’ve gotta do the right thing. And the right thing is to do the fights that really appeal to the public.”
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