Tyson Fury’s return will be a ‘game-changer’ and will be announced in the ‘next week or so’, Frank Warren has said.
Fury has not fought since December, when he stopped Derek Chisora in London to go 3-0 against his fellow Briton, retaining the WBC heavyweight title in the process.
Fury, 34, was then in talks to box unified champion Oleksandr Usyk in April, but negotiations collapsed in March, with Usyk now due to fight Daniel Dubois in August. Meanwhile, Fury has been struggling to find an opponent.
However, the unbeaten “Gypsy King” seemingly has a fight in his diary at last, according to his promoter. Warren told Talksport on Thursday (29 June): “His fight’s done, we can’t hang around. I’m hoping we’ll have an announcement in the next week or so.
“We’ve pretty much done what we want to be doing, but we’re not in a position to make the announcement.”
Fury has been linked with crossover bouts against the likes of UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones and the American’s predecessor Francis Ngannou. And with Warren labelling Fury’s impending fight a ‘game-changer’, fans may suspect that the Briton will take on either mixed martial artist next.
However, Warren was coy on the matter, simply telling Talksport: “Yeah, he’s up for that. He can’t sit around twiddling his thumbs. The type of money something like that could generate... Why are you waiting for people who keep saying, ‘Let’s wait until next year,’ when you can make these fights now? Why wouldn’t you do that now?
“I have no problem if they wanna do that in the boxing ring, no problem at all. That’s a huge, huge event. That all depends on quite a few things, but that’s a door that you don’t have to push very much for it to open.”
UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones (left) and his predecessor Francis Ngannou— (Getty Images)
Warren, 71, added of Fury’s next bout: “It’ll be a bit of a game-changer in a couple of weeks’ time. It’ll be a massive game-changer, and it’s gonna be interesting to see the fallout from it. You’ll find out in a couple of weeks. I guarantee you, you’ll say to me in a couple of weeks, ‘That’s a game-changer.’”
Warren also insisted that Fury will not box in Saudi Arabia in December, despite reports that the WBC champion could fight Usyk then. Warren even suggested that the country’s planned event may not take place this year at all.
“They’re talking about their show now being postponed until January,” Warren said. I think their head of boxing, Amer Abdallah, said they’ll probably be moving it to the first quarter of 2024. That’s up to them [...] In the meantime, we have to move on. We are going to announce something.”
Click here to subscribe to The Independent’s Sport YouTube channel for all the latest sports videos.
