Tyson Fury’s three possible next opponents for February fight after Dillian Whyte blow

Where does Tyson Fury’s win leave the world heavyweight scene?

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World heavyweight champion Tyson Fury is without a mandatory challenger for his WBC title due to Dillian Whyte’s legal proceedings against the boxing body. Whyte was set to be named as the mandatory challenger to face the Gypsy King last week but will now have to wait for the result of a potentially lengthy arbitration case to face Fury.

The situation has left the Gypsy King confused as Whyte, his former sparring partner, is the most obvious challenger to the WBC title and is the current ‘interim champion’.

However, the WBC have delayed its decision to order the fight so it could become a significant wait – and Fury has little interest in waiting for Whyte’s situation to be resolved. 

If Whyte is unable to fight Fury, boxing promoter Bob Arum – who promotes the WBC champion in the US – claims Joe Joyce could be an interesting option. 

Joyce had defeated the likes of Daniel Dubois and Carlos Takam in his last two bouts, while the Gypsy King shares UK promoter Frank Warren with the 36-year-old.

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“Who Fury fights next will be determined by Fury,” Top Rank’s Arum told Sky Sports.

“If the fight is in the UK, I would think Whyte would be a good possibility, as well as Joyce.”

A wildcard option for Fury could be David Haye, who claimed the two have unfinished business in a recent interview. 

The 41-year-old came out of retirement to face Joe Fournier in an exhibition bout, and the Brit believes there is some history between himself and the Gypsy King after he pulled out of two fights with Fury due to injury.

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“The only person I would come back for is the number one,” Haye told iFL TV. 

“If all of a sudden Tyson Fury suddenly came out and said I want to fight David Haye and we have some unfinished business from 2013.

“Yeah I would definitely consider it for sure, but it gets to a point where it is now about the money.”

There is also the chance that Fury could wait it out and face either Oleksandr Usyk or rival Anthony Joshua in a blockbuster bout to determine the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. 

However, Joshua triggered his rematch clause to face the Ukrainian in spring after being outclassed by him in September. 

Regardless, Fury doesn’t appear to mind who he fights next as long as it is soon – which rules out Usyk and Joshua – although he admitted he feels bad for Whyte given the arbitration issues. 

“I thought I was going to be fighting Dillian Whyte but I don’t know what he has going on in his private life with the WBC,” Fury told iFL TV. 

“I hope he does not get caught in the long grass and I hope I don’t get forced into another fight like a voluntary defence.

“I am not interested in waiting around for other people, I will be fighting again in February, early March latest, defending my WBC heavyweight world title.

“Who it is, I just don’t give a damn because the outcome will always be the same.

“I will win, and I will knock the mother f***** out because that’s how I do it now.”

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