The American co-promoter of Tyson Fury 34-0-1 (24) believes a long overdue fight with Anthony Joshua 28-3 (25) will take place before the self-styled ‘Gypsy King’ hangs up the gloves.
WBC heavyweight titleholder Fury already has a full dance card this year, with a unification bout against WBA, WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine champion Oleksandr Usyk 21-0 (14) scheduled for May 18 in Saudi Arabia and an immediate rematch available for the loser should they wish to pursue it.
Bob Arum, who co-promotes Fury alongside Frank Warren, can see the 35-year-old Brit closing out his career with a fight against former two-time unified heavyweight champion Joshua next year.
“Looking at Tyson Fury, if he beats Usyk and fights Usyk again and beats him and then does a massive fight hopefully in the UK at Wembley Stadium against Joshua, that would really put an exclamation point to his great career,” the Top Rank head honcho told Sky Sports.
But Arum isn’t ruling out Fury heading directly into a Joshua fight after the first Usyk bout if that’s what their Saudi paymasters want. And it could yet happen at London’s Wembley Stadium.
“There’s always a chance when there’s one entity putting up the money, as in this case the sovereign fund, the entertainment division in Saudi Arabia, they can have a tremendous influence on the fighters and maybe if Fury is successful they can make it worthwhile to Usyk to step aside to allow a Joshua fight to happen this year,” Arum added.
“The Saudis also, with having all this money, who can dictate the place, are also very intelligent and they would, I think, like nothing more than to do that fight in Wembley with 95,000 people where they were the promoters.
“I think that would do more for their image than doing that fight, Fury and Joshua, in Saudi. But that’s up to them. That’s what I feel in talking to them briefly about the future.”
Arum cautioned against looking to far ahead, particularly after Fury’s struggle in his last bout against boxing debutant and former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou last October when he had to climb of the canvas to salvage a split decision win in their 10-round non-title bout.
For now, their primary focus remains crafty Ukrainian southpaw Usyk, 37.
“Let’s not put the cart before the horse. May 18 is an awfully competitive, really competitive, heavyweight championship fight for all the marbles,” Arum said.
“He will give Tyson Fury everything Tyson can handle. So hopefully the Tyson that shows up on May 18 is not the Tyson that fought [Francis] Ngannou and I really believe from the reports I get that Tyson has really buckled down and is training very, very hard for this.
“I can’t wait to see that fight.”
