If Tyson Fury were to come out of retirement, the WBC has opened a route for him to return straight to world-level competition.
Fury, a former WBC heavyweight world champion, would be sanctioned to fight Agit Kabayel for the WBC’s interim belt if he came out of retirement.
The 36-year-old has teased a return to the ring on social media, posting a video of himself walking down the tunnel at Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium with a reference to 2025 and a message of ‘Did you miss me?’.
Kabayel won that strap with an impressive victory over Zhilei Zhang when he rose from the canvas to knock out Zhang with a body shot inside six rounds.
Germany’s Kabayel is an obvious candidate to be a mandatory challenger for the full WBC world title, one of the belts held by unified champion Oleksandr Usyk.
But that mandatory shot is unlikely to be called in the near future.
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WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman told Sky Sports: “We have been very flexible and supportive of the undisputed concept. We fought very hard to get to undisputed [at heavyweight] and we did not impose a mandatory on Fury in order to allow him to fight Usyk and we made it clear that the winner would do the rematch without any mandatory.”
He continued: “The winner of Zhang-Kabayel is of the highest level. But also we are supporting [undisputed] again because how can you see Usyk lose a belt? That was horrible. Now they might fight again for undisputed with [Daniel] Dubois. We will see. We’re not going to push anything.”
But Sulaiman believes holding its interim heavyweight belt could lead Kabayel to major fights with, he suggests, Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder or indeed Fury, if he decides to reverse his retirement.
“We will [support an undisputed heavyweight title fight] and we will assess what is happening, what is the best scenario,” Sulaiman said.
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“[Kabayel] has the WBC interim championship that [he] can defend. There’s other big fights like Joshua, Wilder or eventually even Fury. So many other possible great fights.
“[Joshua,] he’s highly ranked in the WBC, he’s a legendary champion and we will support him of course.
“We are absolutely in support of just making sure that the best fights can happen.”
Fury lost two close decisions to Usyk in two heavyweight fights of the highest level last year. But in January he announced a surprise retirement from the sport.
Although Fury has given no public indication that he plans to reverse that decision, the WBC would back him, a former holder of that sanctioning body’s full world championship, for that interim title fight.
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Sulaiman noted: “He retired, as you may recall, and the WBC supported him to fight Wilder, the first time and he made a hell of a fight. It was a draw and that led on to two great additional matches with Wilder, then to what we have seen in the past three or four years and now it’s a dream coming true what is happening [in boxing].
“I spoke to him. He told me he’s retired and I congratulated him. You go out and you have a beautiful family, you’re a multi-millionaire. But boxers have something. It is very difficult to step aside but I’m happy he’s retired.
“If he’s to change his mind and give it a try, I’m sure the medicals will be good, the option is open.”
