• Heavyweight

Fury: WBC froze me out of title shot

Tyson Fury has taken a swipe at the WBC by claiming he has been "frozen out" of a shot at the vacant heavyweight title.

Vitali Klitschko vacated his belt in December in order to concentrate on his political career in Ukraine, having not fought in over 15 months.

Bermane Stiverne has now been lined up to face Chris Arreola for the vacant title. However Fury claims it should be himself who faces Stiverne, given the Canadian comfortably saw off Arreola in April - a win which had granted him a shot at Klitschko's title in the first place.

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• There is likely to be more title shots for British boxers this year than ever before - both domestically and at world level writes Steve Bunce, who also reflects on the first time he laid eyes upon a young Ricky Hatton.
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"I've beaten everybody they've put in front of me, but the WBC have done a little sly trick - there were three people eligible to fight for the vacant title," Fury told Buncey's Boxing Podcast. "One was me because I beat Kevin Johnson in an eliminator [in December 2012], another one was Bermane Stiverne because he beat Chris Arreola in an eliminator. And Arreola won a semi-final eliminator against Seth Mitchell [in September].

"Instead of letting me fight Stiverne for the vacant WBC title, they've only gone and put him against the man he's already beaten in his last fight comfortably. So I don't know what's happening there, someone's paying a lot of money to somebody. They've frozen me out there.

"I'll have to have my time sometime. When you're as good as I am and as well known, and talk a lot of b******* like I do, you can't freeze me out.

"The good thing about it all is I'm only still in my 20s. It's not like I'm 37. How long can a man keep knocking on the door and nobody answers?

"I know Wladimir [Klitschko] wants nothing to do with me. So hopefully he'll just retire or step up and fight. People say, 'when are you going to fight for the world title?', and I keep sounding stupid by saying they won't fight me. For whatever reason it is, I'd just like to know."

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