Eddie Hearn believes Tyson Fury’s next fight will be against a former champion in just a few months time.
Fury – who currently holds the WBC world title – was last in the ring for a one-sided affair against Derek Chisora. Following that victory, he entered into negotiations with Oleksandr Usyk to make the undisputed fight. Talks collapsed and Fury took a family trip.
After he broke his silence today to tease an announcement for a ‘monstrous fight’, Hearn told Boxing Social that he guesses it’ll be Andy Ruiz Jr in the opposite corner.
“I think Andy Ruiz by the looks of things. I know George Warren said in his interview, was it July 22nd? Obviously not the fight people wanted, but tick-over fight, decent fight.”
In terms of a WBC title defence, Ruiz does seem the correct move for Fury. The Mexican-American, who was briefly unified world champion after an upset victory over Anthony Joshua, is number two in the rankings.
Deontay Wilder comes in ahead of him at number one, but it’s well known he’s looking for a ‘bigger fight’ than a Ruiz eliminator and that’s likely not Fury just now given that they’ve fought three times in the last five years.
Should Fury fight and win this summer, it’s believed that he’ll move back towards trying to negotiate an undisputed fight with Oleksandr Usyk. The Ukrainian currently has three mandatory challengers to fulfil in Daniel Dubois, Filip Hrgovic and Zhilei Zhang.
Ruiz – if he indeed gets the shot – will do all he can to upset those plans. He’ll enter the ring a massive underdog, but that hasn’t stopped him in the past.