Fury won’t be defending WBC title in March

Frank Warren revealed on Thursday that Tyson Fury WON’T be defending his WBC heavyweight title when he returns to the ring in March. The promoter Warren says Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) won’t wait for his WBC mandatory Dillian Whyte’s arbitration hearing to conclude before fighting again. According to Warren, the arbitration hearing for Whyte’s legal dispute with the World Boxing Council isn’t until March, and they won’t know until then what the purse splits will be for the Fury-Whyte fight. In the meantime, Fury isn’t going to sit around and wait on Whyte’s arbitration case to be concluded with the WBC. In March, Fury will return to the ring, and his WBC title won’t be on the line for that fight. Instead, Fury will defend his Ring heavyweight title, says Warren. The arbitration case for Whyte will determine if Dillian will get his desired 55/45 split or if Fury will get the 80/20 split that he wants for the fight. “Yeah, I’m pretty confident that one of those shows will feature him,” said promoter Frank Warren to iFL TV when asked if Tyson Fury will be fighting in March. He won’t be defending his WBC title; there’s a problem there. “It’s not with our making or his making, I should say. The WBC and Dillian are in arbitration. That is not set to be heard until March. We can’t negotiate. It’s all very well Eddie Hearn with his nonsense about negotiating. “How can you negotiate when the WBC hasn’t said what the splits are? So in his mind, he’s thinking he’s getting 45%, and in our mind, it’s 20% based on the previous purses that were lodged under the WBC’s regulations. “They won’t determine what the purses are until the arbitration. So until that happens, we can’t negotiate, and that doesn’t mean the fights going to take place in April. We’ve got to negotiate, book a venue depending on if we can negotiate something or who wins the purse bid, and then we’ll go on until June. “So Tyson will fight, but NOT for the WBC title. They won’t. The arbitrator will in March,” said Warren when asked when the WBC will determine the purse splits. “That’s when the deadline is for the hearing. “This has nothing to do with our side of the table. We’re innocent parties. That’s not our thing. This is a legal dispute between the WBC and Dillian Whyte, which is being settled by an agreed arbitration. It’ll take place in March,” said Warren. “So, Tyson can’t sit around and wait for that to happen,” Warren continued. “So he’s going to fight. He may defend his Ring belt, we’ll see, but he’ll defend sometime in March. That’s the direction he wants to go in.