Tyson Fury’s WBC heavyweight title clash against Dillian Whyte has finally been confirmed.
Fury’s UK-based promoter Frank Warren won the highest successful purse bid in boxing history on Friday evening, his $41,025,000 beating out Matchroom Boxing’s $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.
Fury posted an Instagram story shortly after the announcement hinting that the fight against Whyte will take place in the UK, the words “BIG GK IS COMING HOME, UK BABY” accompany the lyrics to the song ‘Three Lions’.
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.
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.
