Frank Warren: Clock is ticking on Fury v Wilder showdown

Promoter Frank Warren believes big-time boxing faces a complex road ahead and says that if Tyson Fury does not meet Deontay Wilder this year in a trilogy fight for the World Boxing Council, the contest may not happen.

On Friday, Fury was on Morecambe beach, in Lancashire, on the pads with his father John, surrounded by a large crowd, but Warren told Telegraph Sport: “Tyson Fury isn’t going to wait until next year to fight Wilder. It has to happen this year or it may not happen.

“I can’t go into the contract, but I’m talking about what Tyson wants and that’s all I care about it.”

Warren explained: “Tyson’s the fans’ favourite and the most famous boxer in the world. I want the best for him. I want him to come away from this sport having been the best of his generation. He has to fight Anthony Joshua.”

“We talk about the Dillian Whyte fight and all the rest but AJ is the only fight fans are praying for. The fight the fans want is those two facing each other. That fight should be in the UK and we should be moving heaven and earth to make it work here. I don’t want to take that fight on the road.

“Kubrat Pulev has got a contract to fight Joshua and Tyson will fight this year, but the fight after that should be AJ. I hope it’s for the four belts, but if it’s not, it’s not. The belts are fantastic, but if that gets in the way of making the fight happen then forget the belts. At the end of the day, fans will be buying tickets to see these two fighters meet, not the belts.”

But for now, the solution of stepping up from holding events to creating the biggest matchups viable, even behind closed doors, needs to be found. Could Wilder-Fury take place behind closed doors? “Not unless someone takes a serious pay cut and I don’t see that happening,” Warren said. “You’re going from a gate that was the highest grossing heavyweight gate [17 million] in Vegas to nothing? That’s an absolute killer. How do you make that up?

“They’re all the challenges for us. In the meantime, I want to get all these fights made. We need to survive. Once you get past the novelty of the studio or a back garden, they’re good quality fights, but they’re all at a certain level. It’s not world-class level. We’ve got to see how we can step these fellas up and make it financially viable.

“We’ve got to look at our next move. We’ve got to have some seriously difficult conversations with some of these guys to see what they want to do. Some fighters have said they will not fight behind closed doors. I don’t know if they’ll have that same opinion in a month’s time if nothing has changed.”

Warren reached out to Eddie Hearn last week to look at getting some major matchups made.

“I’ve had a conversation with him and he sent me a message over the weekend. As a result of putting it out there we’ve got to a stage where we’ll have a meeting. Now we’ve got to park up all our egos and broadcast interests, and get on with it.”