Tyson Fury will face Dereck Chisora on December 3 after the heavyweight champion dramatically failed to agree a contest with Anthony Joshua.
Promoter Frank Warren has confirmed plans to hold a trilogy fight between the two British boxers after their showdowns in 2011 and 2014.
Fury won the first meeting in London to inflict Chisora’s first professional defeat on a points decision before his superior height and reach helped him dominate their rematch three years later.
Should the ‘Gypsy King’ come through the contest, Warren expects a unification battle with Oleksandr Usyk to be organised for February of next year.
“We’ve been struggling to get an opponent but we’ve got the highest-ranked opponent which is Dereck Chisora,” he told iFL TV.
“That’s where we’ll be going and that’ll be on December 3.
“We were just trying to find someone and it’s been very difficult.
“What it’s all about is that Tyson will have had one fight in a year and we always expected the fight in December would have been Usyk, but Usyk wasn’t available.
“Now, I hope, that looks like some time in February. Tyson wants to fight before then and get out, we want to get him out and that’s where we’re at.”
He added: “I’m not going to disregard Chisora but if he comes through that then we’ve got the big one [vs Usyk]. That’s really what it’s all been about this year.”