Frank Warren, co-promoter of WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, explained that his fighter had not received a single offer from potential opponents.
Fury, out of the ring since last December when he battered Derek Chisora in their trilogy fight, had tried to secure several opponents since the start of the year.
Initially, there were serious discussions for Fury to collide in an undisputed fight with Oleksandr Usyk. The two sides were unable to agree on the financial terms for the rematch.
Fury would then make an attempt to finally collide with domestic rival Anthony Joshua, but Joshua decided to go in another direction with a showdown against Deontay Wilder being lined up in the early part of 2024.
Attempts to get Andy Ruiz and Zhilei Zhang had also failed.
A deal would eventually get reached for Fury to take part in a cross-sport boxing match with former UFC champion Francis Ngannou. The event takes place on October 28 in Saudi Arabia. The WBC title will not be at stake and traditional boxing rules will be in place.
While they made several offers to others, Warren details that they were never approached with offers for fights.
“Tyson Fury is the only one of them who said he would do his fights in the UK whatever they generate; it’s the opposition that wouldn’t do the fights,” explained Warren. “We made offers, that’s a fact, but there’s not been one offer to Tyson Fury this year," Warren told William Hill.
“He said to both of those guys (Joshua and Uysk) to fight in Wembley. We penciled it in, had the first hold on the dates at Wembley three times, and we booked West Ham’s stadium to do the fight.”