Following the broken-down negotiations to fight Anthony Joshua, Heavyweight Champion, Tyson Fury, is set to announce his opponent for an end of the year fight.
One thing we know for sure is that ‘The Gypsy King’ will be defending his WBC belt at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. For a brief moment, it looked like former-champ Joshua would get the shot. Then the name Mahmoud Charr came back around for boxing fans who hadn’t heard him mentioned in a while, certainly not with title contention in the same breath. Finally, his old foe Derek Chisora seems to be the front runner.
Fury caught up with Radio Rahim for SecondsOut to talk about the process of choosing a challenger. Some might guess that it’s a process of looking at rankings, past results, attributes. It turns out, it’s much simpler than that.
“There will be an announcement imminent next week, of an opponent. I think there’s four or five different guys [who are] in the running right now. One will be selected next week and it will be on like Donkey Kong December the 3rd.”
“It’s just like eeny meeny miny mo. Whichever one of these guys I wanna make a millionaire. Because that’s what we’re dealing with – it’s whoever I wanna give the lottery ticket to.”
Fury went on to respond to the rumours that Derek Chisora was to be announced as the opponent. The pair have shared the ring twice already – both wins for Fury – and recently got into it in the crowd at the Joe Joyce and Joseph Parker fight.
“There’s a few guys there and they’re quite tasty appetites whetters, but Chisora would be a good opponent for me because I’d be the first heavyweight champion in history to complete two trilogies. Not only would I win all the belts, have another fight, and entertain the fans, but I’d also get a little bit of stuff for myself as well.”
“In my opinion, Chisora at least got a draw with Usyk. So I see Chisora every bit as dangerous as Usyk – if it is Chisora.”
“So, Chisora’s no pushover. If you’re not on your A game, Derek will beat you to f*ck.”
It looks likely that we’ll know who Fury’s finger has landed on, in other words boxing’s next millionaire, early this week.