Tyson Fury’s US promoter, Bob Arum, has named two potential opponents for his fighter’s ring return.
Fury took a family holiday following the breakdown in negotiations for an undisputed fight with fellow-champion, Oleksandr Usyk.
The Ukrainian is now set to defend his WBA, WBO and IBF belts against Daniel Dubois, while Fury and his WBC strap are left without a dance partner.
Should both men want to keep the hopes of becoming a four-belt champion alive, they must defend and retain their belts until a time comes that talks can be restarted.
Arum told Boxing Scene that, for Fury, that may look like a fight against either Joe Joyce or Andy Ruiz Jr.
“Joyce would be a possibility, assuming he gets by the Chinese fighter, because Tyson wants to fight this summer. And Andy Ruiz would be a possibility. We’re gonna be talking to Tyson next week.”
Should Joyce indeed beat Zhilei Zhang this weekend, a fight against Fury would, in theory, be easy to make.
Both men are represented by Frank Warren, Fury’s UK promoter, and there has been talk of a Wembley showdown in summer for a while now.
As the current WBO Interim Champion, it would mean Joyce giving up his place in the queue to face the division’s other champion, Oleksandr Usyk, but with the Dubois negotiations ongoing, it may be something he is willing to do. He’s been open about preferring the Fury fight, too.
As for Ruiz, Arum doesn’t believe the promotional barrier will pose a problem. The Mexican-American is represented by Al Haymon’s PBC, although put one foot into free agency by recently announcing no promotional ties.
“If that was the fight we were gonna make. I don’t think Al would stand in the way because we would be offering [Ruiz] a big opportunity, for a nice payday.”
Ruiz is number two in the WBC’s world rankings behind Deontay Wilder. He was ordered to earn his shot at Fury by facing the man above him, however no deal was reached, with Wilder’s side openly more keen on a ‘bigger fight.’
Whatever happens, it looks like Tyson Fury will be defending his world title in the summer.