British heavyweight contender Frazer Clarke has not held back with his views of Tyson Fury’s upcoming fight with former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, and the role the WBC has to play.
Writing in his latest column for the Metro newspaper, former Olympian Clarke states the fight is not one he is interested in.
“To be honest, it is not really something I want to see. It is a spectacle and it will financially benefit everyone involved but we want to see boxing’s world championships being fought and challenged for.
I understand it is easy money for Fury and whatever anyone says, that is what we are in the game for. But for me, it’s a bit of a circus.”
He goes on to say that Fury – despite being the number one heavyweight in the world and the WBC champion – faces the danger of people losing interest.
“He is that selective on who he wants to fight, when he wants to fight and for how much, that it becomes hard work. People start to lose interest then and explore other options.”
The fight all boxing fans want to see his Fury against unified champion, Oleksandr Usyk, and the frustrations that it isn’t happening are clear.
After negotiations stalled earlier in the year, the Ukrainian moved to set up a second defence of his titles with a fight against British hopeful Daniel Dubois in Poland on August 26 at the 43,000-capacity Tarczynski Arena.
The WBC has granted Fury ‘special permission’ to take this fight as he has not currently got a mandatory challenger in place despite last facing one in April 2022 when he knocked out Dillian Whyte. Clarke questions how this is the case.
“Surely there comes a point where the WBC have to think about their own agenda and what is good for the sport and the optics.
Because it is not a good look for them if their heavyweight champion goes off to fight an MMA fighter, possibly in an exhibition, when there is a queue of fighters in the top 10, top 15, waiting for their chance.
They might not all be great fighters but that is the reason you have a rankings, people want to take on the no1. Serious questions need to be asked. There are fighters there who will be asking where is the mandatory fight. At the moment, I think Tyson has the WBC by the balls. He is calling the shots.”