Bob Arum remains unconvinced that Tyson Fury is really retiring from boxing for good.
The Top Rank head is the co-promoter for the WBC champion alongside British promoter Frank Warren, and both organisations appear reluctant to take their fighter’s utterances at face value.
The 33-year-old unbeaten fighter secured a sixth-round uppercut stoppage of his mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte at the end of April at Wembley Stadium.
Immediately after the fight he suggested he would be retiring to the sport, though he welcomed UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou into the ring and suggested the pair of them could meet in a hybrid rules exhibition.
Fury and Warren hinted at future plans last week without giving away any details, but Arum suggested Ngannou is still being considered.
“I would love to do that fight,” Arum said according to BoxingScene.com. “Depending on Ngannou’s contract, we would do it with or without the UFC. That would be a huge, huge event.
“Ngannou is the heavyweight champion of the UFC and Tyson Fury – I think it would be a huge, huge event.”
“He didn’t say dollars,” Arum responded when asked about Fury’s statement that he would need $500 million to get back in the ring. “Maybe he was talking pesos.
“With a guy like Tyson you take it one step at a time.
“I’m optimistic without discussing it with him, that sometime down the road he will fight the winner of Joshua-Usyk, which I hope it’s Usyk, and he’ll fight Ngannou, and maybe call it a day. I know he loves training and he loves being in the ring, so that’s a plus.”