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Two months removed from a decisive win over Deontay Wilder to conclude their trilogy of fights, Tyson Fury has his next opponent. The WBC has ordered him to start negotiations with interim champ Dillian Whyte as a mandatory challenger. Keith Idec is reporting the bout will take place sometime in March in Cardiff or Manchester if a deal can be reached.
Fury holds the WBC title and The Ring title as the unofficial king of the division. Oleksandr Usyk stunned Anthony Joshua to secure the IBF, WBA, and WBO titles. If Fury can get past Whyte, there is a decent chance we could finally see a bout that fully unifies the division for the first time since Lennox Lewis beat Evander Holyfield in 1999.
However, he has to get past Whyte first. Whyte is 28-2 and won back the interim title in March with a fourth-round TKO of Alexander Povetkin. He had previously lost the belt to Povetkin in August 2020 on a surprising fifth round TKO. Whyte was scheduled to fight Otto Wallin this past October, but it was called off after Whyte suffered an alleged shoulder injury. Considering how things have shaken out in the division, it’s reasonable to be skeptical of that injury. Maybe it’s legit, maybe he just wanted to get his mandatory challenge in rather than face a tough Wallin.