Tyson Fury’s chances of facing Wladimir Klitschko in the UK this summer have been handed a major boost with HBO Sports president Ken Hershman set to be in attendance for his fight this Saturday night.
Fury, mandatory challenger for Klitschko’s WBO title, takes on the sturdy Christian Hammer this weekend at the O2 Arena, with news that boxing bigwig Hershman will be ringside to assess the possibility of a UK megafight with the Ukrainian great acting as a huge incentive.
26-year-old Fury has taken the heavyweight division by storm and recently pushed himself into the number one position to face the formidable Klitschko with a commanding 10th round win over brave Londoner Dereck Chisora last November.
Hershman was one of the key figures in getting boxing’s most sought after fight between Floyd Mayweather, and Manny Pacquiao confirmed when HBO and Showtime agreed to a unique pay-per-view collaboration for the highly-anticipated May 2nd showdown.
Now, the HBO Sports boss will be looking to pave the way for the first heavyweight world title fight on British soil in nearly 5 years, following David Haye’s defence of his WBA crown against the much maligned Audley Harrison.
Klitschko, however, is regarded as one of the best heavyweights of all time and the chance to see him fight in the flesh against the talented and colourful Fury will have British fight fans licking their lips.
Hershman will hold discussions while in London with leading promoter Frank Warren with the hopes of ironing out a summer blockbuster that will certainly give Fury the best possible advantage against WBA, WBO and IBF kingpin Klitschko.
Fury though must come through his fight this Saturday night, live and exclusive on BoxNation, unscathed against Hammer who will have ambitions of his own as he looks to tear up the Manchester heavyweight’s world title script.
The exciting starlet Chris Eubank Jr is also set to feature on the card when he’s back in action against Dmitry Chudinov for the interim WBA world middleweight title.
Fury v Hammer is live and exclusive on BoxNation (Sky 437/490HD, Virgin 546 and TalkTalk 525) this Saturday at 7pm. Visit www.boxnation.com to subscribe.