Promoter Bob Arum (Top Rank) has no doubt that Briton Tyson Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs), who announced his retirement from the WBC heavyweight belt, will return to the ring.
According to the businessman, his priority task is not to make the fighter a fight for all division titles with Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs), but a fight with UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou (17-3 in MMA).
Arum is not embarrassed even his strained relationship with UFC boss Dana White: “This MMA dude (Ngannou) is still recovering from his injury. But I would love to do this fight. How could all this look like? Well, it all depends on whether he has a valid contract with the UFC. It depends on whether we (UFC) need them to organize the fight or not. But in any case, we are talking about a simply incredible scale fight. I am, of course, very interested in this option. And who in my place would be against it? Ngannou is not just an ordinary fighter. This is the UFC champion. So I think it will be a huge event.”
Fury recently announced that he would demand $ 500 million for a fight against Usyk or Joshua. Arum comments on the words of the fighter: “Did he say so? Did he say the word “dollar”? What if he meant 500 thousand pesos? Let’s be frank. The final decision will be with Tyson. And he has several options. He is a smart guy. He knows that in such cases you need to move gradually – step by step. I’m optimistic, though I haven’t talked to him yet. But I’m sure he will fight the winner of the rematch between Usyk and Anthony Joshua. I hope that it will still be Usyk. I also believe that he will fight Ngannou. And after that, he finally hangs his gloves on a nail. Why am I sure of this? This guy loves training very much, loves boxing very much, he enjoys being in the ring. And that’s his advantage.”
Yesterday, Tyson Fury commented on the rumors about negotiations with Usyk. Previously, he made it clear that he would not give up the WBC belt, considers Joshua and Usyk “two fighting suckers.” He even gave the go-ahead for the fight with the Ukrainian: “Come on, middleweight, knock out Anthony!”
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