Tyson Fury and Dillian Whyte have been given an extra week to agree a fight deal before negotiations go to a purse bid.
Fury has been ordered to defend his WBC heavyweight title against interim champion and mandatory challenger Whyte, and it was recently revealed by the governing body that the “Gypsy King” is set to receive 80 per cent of the total purse for the bout.
Whyte and his team are said to be unhappy with that split, and the deadline for a fight deal to be agreed was originally Tuesday.
However, the WBC has extended the deadline by a week.
“The WBC has extended the free negotiations period for the WBC mandatory heavyweight title fight between champion Tyson Fury and interim champion Dillian Whyte,” a statement read.
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“If there is no agreement between the parties a purse bid will be held on Tuesday January 18 at noon in Mexico City WBC headquarters.”
A purse bid would mean that any promoter could enter negotiations to stage the fight.
Fury’s US promoter Bob Arum has said that Andy Ruiz Jr could be an alternative opponent for the WBC heavyweight champion if talks with Whyte fall through.
“Frank Warren and I are looking for another opponent to do Fury’s fight in Manchester or Las Vegas, depending on who the opponent is,” Arum told iFL TV in late December.
“So we’re looking at Andy Ruiz as a possibility, he’s available. This big Finnish kid, who looked very good on the Fury vs [Deontay] Wilder 3 card, [Robert] Helenius. Those are the two principal guys.
“I guess if it’s Helenius, we do it in the UK. If it was Ruiz, we do the fight in Las Vegas.”
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