Tyson Fury’s co-promoter does not expect him to fight WBC interim champion Dillian Whyte in his next event.
Whyte has been given the nod by the governing body for a mandatory challenge but a dispute between the two fighters’ representatives over a potential purse split threatens to delay the fight for some time.
Frank Warren, the WBC champion’s co-promoter, told IFL TV that he expects Fury to fight in March, but without the WBC belt on the line so as not to deny Whyte an eventual challenge.
“I’m pretty confident one of those shows [in March] will feature him,” Warren said. “He won’t be defending his WBC title, there is a problem there, not of his making or our making.
“The WBC and Dillian Whyte are in arbitration and that hearing is not set to be heard until March. We can’t negotiate. It’s all very well Eddie Hearn saying this nonsense about negotiating, how can you negotiate when the WBC haven’t said what the splits are?
“In his mind he thinks he’s getting 45 per cent, in our mind, it’s 20 per cent based on the previous purses that were lodged under WBC regulations.
“They won’t determine what the percentages are until after the arbitration. And that doesn’t mean the fight will take place in April, we have to negotiate, book a venue. And that could go until June. So Tyson will fight, but not for the WBC title.”
Fury has fought just once in 22 months, after finally completing his trilogy rematch with Deontay Wilder after months of delays due to arbitration, injury and coronavirus, and Warren explained he does not want to wait so long again.
“He can’t be inactive because of the problems caused by this arbitration between the WBC and Whyte.
“I‘m not going to go into that because we have got to get things done first. But we are working quite hard on it and there are about four in the frame and we will make a decision on that, subject to their availability too.”