Matchroom MD Eddie Hearn believes Tyson Fury should be made WBC’s “Champion in Recess” due to inactivity and the current WBC interim heavyweight champion Dillian Whyte should be elevated to world champion status.
Fury, who was last seen in action in his rematch against Deontay Wilder back in February last year when he clinched Wilder’s WBC title, is currently on a year and a half long hiatus away from the squared circle.
The ‘Gypsy King’ was slated to return against Wilder for the trilogy fight on 24th July, but its now pushed back to 9th October after he tested positive for COVID-19. Provided that Fury vs Wilder 3 doesn’t meet any more hurdles, 9th October will mark Fury’s return to the boxing ring after a year and eight-month gap.
Despite Fury being away from action for such a long time, the World Boxing Council has not stripped the Briton off of his world title and hopes to keep Fury on the throne until he takes on the ‘Bronze Bomber’ two months from now at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
However, Matchroom MD Eddie Hearn feels Fury should be given the ‘Champion in Recess’ tag due to his prolonged inactivity, and the current WBC interim champion Dillian Whyte should be elevated to world champion status.
Speaking to iFL TV, Hearn proposed a potential bout between Whyte and former unified heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr in the near future, but opined that WBC should put Fury into recess.
“Big fight,” Hearn said on Whyte vs Ruiz, “but hopefully, the WBC listens to the requests to put Tyson Fury into recess and make Dillian Whyte world champion. We’ll see what happens.”
“They’ve [WBC] already ordered Tyson Fury vs. Dillian Whyte before. He [Fury] come out with, ‘I’ll fight Dillian Whyte,’ and then the WBC said, ‘There we go, we’ll order it.’ Then he [Fury] just went, ‘No’”, hearn added.
Dillian Whyte, meanwhile, drew the example of WBC Lightweight champion Devin Haney, who was elevated from his interim status after Vasyl Lomachenko was made the WBC franchise champion.
“That’s what they [WBC] did with Devin Haney,” said Whyte.
