By: Sean Crose
Sky Sports spoke with WBC honcho Mauricio Sulaiman about Tyson Fury and the state of the heavyweight division. Although the WBC, like most major boxing organizations, has over the years been criticized for incompetence, unfair practices, or both, Sulaiman claimed that it was time for the WBC to become proactive in regard to finding an opponent for it’s heavyweight champion, Fury. The colorful and dominant Fury, after all, has engaged in several negations which have fallen through during the past half year or so.
“We have to take some action,” Sulaiman said. “There are different options. I’m going to address this with the board of governors, because already we’re entering June and there’s no scenario. Tyson Fury will make us proud and show who the WBC champion is.” The WBC head went on to explain why his organization hasn’t gotten overly involved up until this point in finding Fury an opponent.
“We didn’t push it in the hope that Fury would fight (WBO, WBA and IBF titlist Oleksandr) Usyk. So that was all the way to March. So we have to take some decisions.” The well known name of Anthony Joshua came up. Might there be a chance the WBC will order he and Fury to finally meet in the ring? “That’s a possibility,” Sulaiman said. “If Wilder and Ruiz are not fighting for the final elimination, Joshua’s right there at No 3. That’s possible.”
So, does the WBC have a favorite potential mandatory opponent for Fury? “I don’t want to speculate,” said Sulaiman, “because that would be irresponsible to try to make something up. We have to go through a process. The WBC board of governors will make that decision…at this stage anything is possible. There’s too much talent, too many great fights, too many great combinations that could be made for heavyweight and everything is stalled.”
Perhaps surprisingly, Sulaiman went on to criticize Fury. “Of course there’s concern about heavyweight underperforming in the fights that have been done,” he said. “But that’s not the fault of anyone but just greed and power. So hopefully they will come to their senses and make the fights happen. Tyson Fury’s the victim of the perils of money.” Still, Sualiman wasn’t willing to pile on the criticism. Fury is, after all, still one of the WBC’s more popular and dominant belt holders.
“But he’s willing to fight anyone,” Sulaiman said of his organization’s heavyweight titlist, “and I’m sure he will be active very soon.”