TYSON FURY is set to hand Dillian Whyte his long-awaited crack at the WBC heavyweight title after his humdinger with Deontay Wilder.
Fury, 33, picked himself up off the canvas twice before sealing a thrilling knockout win over old-rival Wilder in their trilogy bout on Saturday night.
And the champ is now mandated to take on the victor of Whyte’s clash with Otto Wallin.
The fight, however, is contingent on Fury being unable to strike a deal to face Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed title within 30 days.
But with Anthony Joshua officially exercising his rematch clause with the Ukrainian, the winner of Whyte vs Wallin is now guaranteed the next shot at the undisputed WBC strap.
On Saturday night, AJ’s promoter Eddie Hearn told DAZN’s Maya Jama: “Today we officially triggered the rematch for Oleksandr Usyk fight, which we’ll see early next spring.
“Back in the game and we’re looking for him to become three-time world champion.
“A few niggles in camp for AJ, Usyk had a bad cut, it’s officially triggered, we’ll sit down with K2 Promotions and I think March is when you’ll see that fight.
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“This was a disappointing loss to a pound-for-pound great.
“We don’t need to get back in the game with 10-rounders, he needs to rip those belts off Usyk.”
Fury’s co-promoter Bob Arum revealed this week he’s interested in a Battle of Britain between Fury and Whyte.
He told iFL TV: “That could be a big, big fight for Tyson, particularly if we held it in UK.
“That is not out of the question, Dillian Whyte is a capable heavyweight and a fight against Tyson Fury or Wilder [or] whoever wins would be a very interesting fight.”
But the 89-year-old doesn’t foresee Whyte getting past Swedish slugger Wallin.
He said: “Last time he [Whyte] was mandatory, he fought Povetkin and got knocked on his ass.
“I look for Wallin to clearly beat Whyte, so I’m not even taking it into consideration.”
Despite being within touching distance of a long-awaited showdown with Fury, Whyte, is refusing to get his hopes up.
The 33-year-old said: “Tyson Fury hasn’t spoken to anyone from my team about any fight.
“If he was serious, he would have sent emails or phone calls and we’d have been talking.
“If he was serious I would probably have even waited for him and not fought until December.
“But these fights are big fights, big fights don’t get made in one or two months.
‘There’s a lot of things that need to happen.”
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