Dillian Whyte could become WBC heavyweight world champion by virtue of a sanctioning body upgrade, according to Tyson Fury’s co-promoter Bob Arum.
A complicated situation is emerging at the top of boxing’s glamour division at present, with multiple big names jostling for position.
As things stand, Fury must defend his title in a contracted trilogy fight with Deontay Wilder next, while Anthony Joshua is going to stake his belts against mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev.
Should both Brits win as expected, they will look to unify all four major heavyweight titles in a bout to crown one undisputed champion early next year.
AJ’s promoter Eddie Hearn previously stated they would likely sign a two-fight deal to guarantee a rematch, thus occupying them for the entirety of 2021.
But there’s a problem.
Whyte stands as the WBC ‘interim’ champion and mandatory challenger for Fury, with his title shot due to be called in February 2021.
Usually, a unification bout such as Fury vs Joshua would take precedence over the mandatory in Whyte, though it’s unclear whether the WBC would allow a delay all the way until 2022.
The solution appears obvious and is already being eyed by Arum – make Fury the ‘franchise’ champion.
In 2018, the WBC introduced their new rule, upgrading certain big-name world champions to become ‘franchise’ champions.
This designation allows the fighter to have various privileges, including a lack of mandatory challengers.
In the two instances of this happening so far, the existing mandatories have been upgraded to become the regular world champions.
Canelo Alvarez was made ‘franchise’ champion at middleweight and his mandatory Jermall Charlo became the regular champion.
Vasyl Lomachenko was made ‘franchise’ champion at lightweight and his mandatory Devin Haney became the regular champion.
Therefore, the WBC are able to charge sanctioning fees to two fighters in the same weight division, both fighters can claim to be world champions and the star fighter doesn’t have to face his mandatory.
Arum told PepTalkUK: “Fury and Joshua, whether they fight once or twice or whatever, Dillian Whyte can make a big name for himself fighting in the interim and then, when he fights the winner, can make a huge payday.
“There has to be a lot of sense involved, his management can’t push something that makes no sense in my opinion.
“The reaction to a lot of these mandatories, what the WBC did was to make a guy like Canelo ‘franchise’ champion. To make Lomachenko ‘franchise’ champion.
“That allowed Devin Haney to fight for the WBC title and not to bother Lomachenko with a mandatory fight.
“Particularly while these guys were fighting the top, top person around.
“Nobody’s asking the WBC to make Tyson Fury a ‘franchise’ champion, but if Dillian Whyte pursues this idea of fighting Tyson Fury before he fought Wilder again and then Joshua, that would be the way I think the WBC would go.
“The public is not stupid, the public knows who’s the champion.
“Particularly now when we’ve had this period where we haven’t had fights, I think we’ve gotta do the right thing.
“And the right thing is to do the fights that really appeal to the public.”
