January 2022 – WBC heavyweight status
The World Boxing Council provided an update on Tuesday, January 18, which was the date that purse bids were due to be called for the Tyson Fury vs Dillian Whyte WBC World heavyweight title fight.
The update read as: "The WBC has extended the free negotiations period for the WBC mandatory heavyweight title fight between Champion Tyson Fury and interim champion Dillian Whyte.
If there is no agreement between the parties a purse bid will be held on Friday, January 21 at noon in Mexico City WBC headquarters."
The news was expected after Fury's US promoter Bob Arum gave his own update onn Monday, January 17, where he predicted the purse bids would be called this week but not on Tuesday, more likely on Friday.
He added, "The WBC has decreed that Whyte will get 20 per cent of the purse bid and if the purse bid goes ahead, we’ll figure out what that 20 per cent comes to.
“I’m always optimistic that a deal gets done before the purse bid. I don’t think a purse bid does anybody any good. I think the parties should sit down, there’s plenty of money involved, and just work out a normal deal. Obviously there’s talks to try and settle the matter so it goes ahead without purse bids.”
Arum also served a warning to Whyte, making it clear that they will not wait for him and are pushing to keep Fury active, with a number of potential opponents being lined up, such as Andy Ruiz Jr.
“If Dillian Whyte is not gonna fight for whatever reason, obviously we’re not gonna keep Tyson Fury, not gonna make him pay the price of waiting.
“Fury wants to fight and wants to fight sooner rather than later. We can look around, get a good, decent opponent for him to fight if Whyte isn’t available. You’ve got guys like Robert Helenius and Manuel Charr.
“You just look at the rankings and pick a couple of guys from the rankings who would make decent opponents.”
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