Tyson Fury’s WBC heavyweight title clash against Dillian Whyte finally confirmed after Purse bidding
Fury’s UK-based promoter Frank Warren won the highest successful purse bid in boxing history on Friday evening, his £31m ($41,025,000) beating out Matchroom Boxing’s £24m ($32,222,222).
Whyte will now challenge for a world title for the first time in his career against the undefeated Fury, who emerged with two sensational wins from a historic trilogy with Deontay Wilder.
It is now expected that Anthony Joshua will rematch Oleksandr Usyk for the IBF, WBA and WBO titles.
Whyte has long been the WBC’s No 1 ranked contender but was officially named as the mandatory challenger to Fury’s belt after ‘The Gypsy King’ beat Wilder for the second time.
The WBC ordered them into negotiations, ruling that Fury should keep 80 per cent of the total earnings – but Whyte was also in arbitration with the governing body.
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The deadline for a private agreement between Fury and Whyte – before ‘purse bids’ enabled any promoter to enter the negotiations and finance the fight – had been pushed back four times.
Friday January 28 at 6pm was the final cut-off point but a private arrangement was not found.
Warren, who promotes Fury in the UK, won the purse bid with an offer of $41m – the largest in boxing history.
It had previously been an option that Fury and Usyk would fight next to decide the undisputed heavyweight champion.
Joshua has already triggered a rematch clause after losing his titles to Usyk last year, and is currently seeking to revamp his training set-up ahead of an expected second fight.
Both sides will now attempt to thrash out a deal for what was due to be a March 26 battle at Manchester Arena but due to the massive monetary layout by Warren, a UK football stadium will surely be the order of the day.
That scenario could see the fight delayed until April.
