Tyson Fury has decided to keep his heavyweight world title and will now look to fight Oleksandr Usyk later this year.
Fury has performed several U-turns after first announcing his retirement after defending his title successfully against Dillian Whyte in April. He then flip-flopped between offering to fight Anthony Joshua for free and demanding £500million to fight Oleksandr Usyk.
And last week, after failing to secure a third fight with Derek Chisora, Fury insisted he was retired in an official statement on his 34th birthday. Shortly afterwards The Ring magazine confirmed Fury had vacated his title which was the biggest hint yet the Brit was hanging his gloves up for good.
But the 'Gypsy King' has confirmed he has made a U-turn and will return to the ring with the plan to face Usyk this December with all four titles on the line. Fury has told his promoters to indicate to the WBC on today's deadline that he plans to continue fighting and is eyeing a lucrative meeting to become the first undisputed champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999.
Fury had been on a video call with the organisation's president Mauricio Sulaiman who confirmed the news of his retirement, when he said: "Just finished a touching video conference with Tyson Fury who has confirmed his official retirement from boxing. We fully support his decision which is a dream for anyone to retire undefeated and as WBC champion of the world. WBC boxing will prepare a special farewell event soon."
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Fury mocked both Joshua and Usyk following the Ukrainian's victory in their rematch last weekend. And talks to host the undisputed fight in Saudi Arabia resumed in the days after the final bell with Fury setting a deadline of next Thursday for a deal to be done.
He posted on social media: “For all these suitors out there that want to make the fight, I’m going to give you all seven days until September 1st to come up with the money, if not thank you very much, it’s been a blast, I’m retired. All offers submitted must be to my lawyer."
