WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman is ready to give Tyson Fury time to consider his retirement with a potential undisputed fight on the cards.
Fury beat Dillian Whyte last month with an impressive sixth-round uppercut and promptly suggested that would be his last professional appearance in a boxing ring, though suggested he could take on UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.
However Fury’s wife Paris - and other boxing figures - have admitted that they think a chance to become undisputed heavyweight champion could tempt him back for at least one more bout.
After months of delay it seems that Anthony Joshua will fight IBF, WBA and WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk in their rematch towards the end of July, potentially in Saudi Arabia.
One that is resolved it will free up the path for the winner to fight Fury to decide the four-belt champion of the world. To that end, the WBC are in no hurry to make their current champion vacate the belt, or to order him into a second consecutive mandatory fight.
“There’s no specific period of time,” Sulaiman told BoxingScene.com. “I spoke to him this week, he’s on holiday, looking great and we’re going to talk in a few days and we are going to 100 percent support whatever is his decision. If he decides to retire from boxing, that is a dream come true, because to retire at the top with money, with health, with family, with a brilliant future doing things, that is a dream for an administrator like me.
“My father [Jose] always suffered to see great fighters falling into the trap of fame and glory and all that comes from that and then end up in a bad situation, so if he [Fury] makes a statement and is a role model, we will support him. If he wants to continue fighting, we will support him as well.
“He’s [got] no mandatory so a unification would be tremendous, to have him undisputed, that would be a great recognition to his career and that’s what matters. The WBC stood by him in the difficult times, we have seen him come into the glory and we are with him. I think he’s the best heavyweight. There’s no one who can get close to him at this point. He could go one fighting without a doubt for a couple of years at the top and I love to see him fight but if he decides to retire I respect that.”
Sulaiman contrasted the WBC’s treatment of Fury with the WBA’s handling of Josh Taylor, who until recently was the undisputed champion at 140lbs. While the Scot claimed he had vacated, and was expected to move up to welterweight in any case, the president suggested the process was handled poorly.
“Very regrettably the situation has taken a turn in this way so there’s no more unified champion at super-lightweight and we move on and we will see what happens,” he said.
“Taylor deserves recognition. He has been a tremendous fighter, a warrior and we are very proud of Josh Taylor, our champion and we have the fight against Jose Zepeda coming up and we will wait for the time to address that fight. It's very unfortunate because that’s what everyone talks about.
“Everyone wants to have one champion for each division. The reality is there are four organizations, each one with different rules, different procedures, and we had what I thought was a very good meeting with the four presidents sitting down discussing specifically the matter of unified champions and how difficult it is to maintain [them] without interfering."