The possibility of a WBC championship bout between WBC holder, Tyson Fury, and Dillian Whyte, has been put on hold after the WBC, on Tuesday, failed to order a mandatory fight between the two boxers.

A mandatory fight would have meant that Fury would have to face Whyte before moving on to another fighter. Failure to do that would have caused Fury to give up his WBC title. But now, Fury can face any fighter he wants as he is not under any compulsion. This is quite different from when an arbitration, in May, ordered him to fight Deontay Wilder, according to the agreement of their fight contract. Fury faced Wilder in October and won.

The whole issue started when Fury was unable to secure an undisputed fixture with newly crowned WBO, WBA, IBF heavyweight title holder, Oleksandr Usyk.

Usyk is bound to face Anthony Joshua, for the second time after Joshua triggered the rematch clause in their fight contract. The agreement had been that if Fury could not fix a match with Usyk, the WBC would have to step in. With Joshua vs. Usyk 2 agreed, Fury would have to face someone else and that person may not be Whyte.

According to Fury’s promoter, Bob Arum, Fury still wants a fight with Usyk. But that would mean that Fury would have to wait till the middle of next year or even longer than that.

Also, his quest for an undisputed fight depends on who would wins Joshua vs. Fury too. But Arum also said that Fury may face Whyte at his own discretion: “Fury may end up fighting Whyte, we’ll see. But it won’t be with the requirement of the WBC. Whyte is an excellent fighter. When the time comes, and it will come soon, for Tyson to figure out his next opponent then Whyte should be at the top of the list.”

Written by: Leon Osamor