Mauricio Sulaimán, president of the WBC, assured that the organization will support a unification between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk at full weight.
There has been real interest in having Tyson Fury against Oleksandr Usyk take place: Mauricio Sulaimán
Fury currently holds the WBC title and is set to defend it against Derek Chisora in their upcoming trilogy on the 3rd of December 3. On the other hand, Usyk has gone 2-0 against Anthony Joshua, holds WBA (Super), IBF and WBO, as well as the IBO and The Ring belts and is counting the days to his unification fight with the British.
However, the Ukrainian has recently been ordered by the IBF to face the mandatory- Filip Hrgovic. In case Usyk doesn’t accept the fight and if Hrgovic thumbs down the unification bout, Usyk will then have to vacate the belt and will only have the WBA and WBO belts to pit against Fury.
Although Fury is the only fighter in history to win all four heavyweight championships, he has never held them at the same time, which is why the fight against Usyk is his biggest draw.
“There has been real interest in having Fury against Usyk take place, that would be a great possibility and then the winner would have to fight the WBC mandatory once that is confirmed,” Sulaiman told Sky Sports, “The WBC has been extremely supportive of unification bouts. We supported back then Wilder against Joshua, it didn’t happen. Then we supported when the time could be for Fury against Joshua again and then we support Fury against Usyk.”
“If it happens it will be a tremendous fight for the world and the WBC is supportive of that as long as the rights of the mandatory contender are not infringed. So the timing right now looks very good for that to happen,” the Council prez added.
While Sulaimán supports the future fight, he clarified that after the unification, the right that the challenger who comes out of the fight between Andy Ruíz and Deontay Wilder would have to be respected.
Ruiz and Wilder both won their semifinal eliminator in 2022 and, according to the president of the WBC, the fight in 2023 is expected to be one of the biggest and most vital fights of the year and will produce a solid challenger to Fury or Usyk’s undisputed throne.
“Wilder, he was world champion of the WBC for five years, very dominating. He has the highest knockout percentage, his last outing was very impressive with a one-punch knockout, a dramatic punch,” Sulaiman went on, “Ruiz has a great following. He made the world stage when he defeated Joshua by knockout and he’s a fighter that you can never rule out. So that fight should prove to be a great, great match and then a very solid mandatory contender for the WBC.”
