All eyes will be on returning former heavyweight king Tyson Fury next year; providing of course he is granted a licence in January, as is widely expected will be the case. As fans know, the unbeaten 29 year old has been cleared by UKAD to fight on and Fury has been working hard in the gym; appearing to have lost a substantial amount of weight already.
The fight everyone wants to see, in the UK especially, is of course one between Fury and Anthony Joshua. This one would sell-out Wembley, no doubt about it, and fans are hoping to see the showdown go ahead next year, possibly in the summer. And Eddie Hearn, promoter of course of ruling WBA and IBF heavyweight boss Joshua, has outlined his plan for Fury.
Speaking with Sky Sports, Hearn outlined a three-fight plan for Fury to take to get to AJ:
“The good news is he’s now served his ban,” Hearn said of Fury. “It looks almost inevitable that we’ll see him return to boxing, which is great for the sport. We’ve got three fights for him. He can fight Dillian Whyte on the comeback, then Tony Bellew and then he can have Anthony Joshua. Team Joshua are over the moon because we want as many contenders as possible and we want the biggest fights, and Tyson Fury has to go down on that list.”
Hearn’s three-fight plan looks good enough on paper, but as we all know, Fury does not like being, in fact will not be, dictated to – by anyone. Whyte as Fury’s first fight back would be an attractive fight, but will Whyte – a man who seemingly calls out just about everyone: from Jarrell Miller to Deontay Wilder, to Lucas Browne to Tony Bellew, to Hughie Fury (Whyte recently tweeting a response to Hughie’s actual calling out of him, saying he is agreeable to the fight) – get the job?
Basically, Fury will likely be able to fight whoever he chooses in his initial return to the ring, and guys like Shannon Briggs, Manuel Charr and even David Price (who holds a years-old amateur win over Fury) are in the frame. As for a Fury-Bellew fight, well, Bellew must first come through against his rescheduled return fight with David Haye, now set for May 5 – unless Bellew is looking at taking a big and dangerous fight against Fury after the Haye rematch.
Regardless, Fury will be back as Hearn says, but he may not take the route to Joshua that the Matchroom boss would like him to take.
