Mauricio Sulaiman has issued an update following the latest retirement of Tyson Fury.
The WBC heavyweight champion claimed earlier this week that a deal to face his British rival Derek Chisora – who he has already beaten twice – had been agreed.
Fury turned 34 on Friday and made the latest in a series of u-turns, having revealed less than a week ago that he was returning to boxing under the tutelage of featherweight fighter Isaac Lowe.
He said in a post on social media that he would not be back between the ropes and that he was hanging up the gloves for good, leaving the sport as a unified heavyweight champion and two-time Ring Magazine titlist with a record of 32-0-1 with 23 KOs.
‘The Gypsy King’ was last seen in the ring back in April at Wembley Stadium in London when he inflicted a sixth-round stoppage over number one-ranked Dillian Whyte in a defence of his title before undertaking a self-imposed sabbatical.
WBC president Sulaiman had a video call with Fury and wished him the best for the future:
“I just had a beautiful video conference with Tyson Fury on his 34th birthday.
“[I am] very proud of him. He has confirmed retirement, to go out as a champion, as a family man with money [and] with a great future.”
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.@WBCBoxing will prepare a special farewell event soon pic.twitter.com/2SgCRILldl
— Mauricio Sulaiman (@wbcmoro) August 12, 2022
Bob Arum, the Top Rank head honcho who looks – or looked – after Fury’s affairs Stateside, said earlier this week that Fury was “having fun” and that we weren’t supposed to take the chat of his potential trilogy clash against the aforementioned Chisora seriously.
Arum went on to state that Fury was waiting for the conclusion of the rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua before making his return to the sport.
Ukraine’s Usyk faces Fury’s British rival Joshua for a second time on August 20 at the Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia after the former undisputed cruiserweight king dethroned the Matchroom-promoted golden boy of the WBA Super, IBF, IBO and WBO world heavyweight titles at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London last September.
Sky Sports Box Office will air the rematch between Usyk and Joshua next weekend, having paid a staggering £23million to broadcast the fight in the UK & Ireland.
But Sulaiman believes we’ve seen the end of one of British boxing’s biggest characters:
“That’s a dream of anyone involved in boxing.
“We want to wish Tyson Fury the best. May God bless him all the time. He’s a great, great inspiration.”
Sulaiman would not confirm whether the WBC title that Fury claimed with a seventh-round stoppage of Deontay Wilder (42-2-1, 41 KOs) in their rematch in February 2020 before defending it against ‘The Bronze Bomber’ in their trilogy fight last October and then stopping the aforementioned Whyte, would be declared vacant.
A fight between the number two- and three-rated fighters with the WBC is already scheduled, with Joe Joyce – who also holds the number one spot with the WBO – preparing to face former WBO world champion Joseph Parker on September 24 at the AO Arena in Manchester, exclusively live on BT Sport Box Office.
It remains to be seen whether the title will be available to be contested when the pair meet in a highly-anticipated clash next month.