It has long since been a desire of Mancunian boxing fans to see a local fighter Tyson Fury defend one of his world championship belts in the city. Despite a fight at the Manchester Arena against Sefer Seferi in 2018, the 'Gypsy King' has not fought as a world champion in Manchester and his ability to sell out the largest stadiums in the country has raised suggestions of an Old Trafford fight in the future.
However, Fury seems set on taking each fight as it comes and just to enjoy the Wembley experience. With 94,000 people set to head to Wembley for Saturday's heavyweight title clash against Dillian Whyte, it will be a record European boxing crowd. His opponent Whyte will be fighting in front of a home London crowd but due to Fury's popularity it is likely to be a fairly even split in terms of crowd favourites.
Fury is a well known Manchester United fan and has previously been pictured at Old Trafford for a match against Arsenal in 2018. Speaking to MEN Sport at Wembley on Wednesday afternoon he explained that his Old Trafford dream may have gone, with the heavyweight champion just happy with the offer on the table for this fight.
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"No! This is it, this is the capital city, the pinnacle of it all," he explained. "It used to be one of my big goals to fight at Old Trafford, as well as to fight at Madison Square Garden, York Hall & MGM - and that was it but the opportunity came up to fight here."
It is a massive purse which brings Fury back to the UK and with the original 90,000 allocation selling out in minutes, and with the capacity being increased to 94,000, it shows the draw the Wythenshawe-born fighter has. He has not fought in his home country in four years and says that he was happy to put his gloves on once again for this opportunity.
He added: "I was happy with my carpet slippers on in Morecambe until Frank phoned me with a massive 40 odd million offer, I was like 'what!?' put me down! Wembley. 40 million? For sure, put me down!"
