The WBC heavyweight champion had floated the prospect of retiring and the WBC had given him until Friday August 26 to confirm whether or not he would retain its belt.

Mauricio Sulaiman, the WBC president, has stated that an 'official decision' on Fury's status as WBC champion will be delayed until next Friday, September 2, due to the recent death of Fury's cousin, Rico Burton.

Sulaiman tweeted: "The @WBCBoxing acknowledging the tragedy which happened in the Fury family and in respect of their grief has decided to extend one week until Friday September 2 the official decision of @Tyson_Fury regarding his status as heavyweight."

However, Fury has instructed his promotional team to inform the WBC that he intends to resume his boxing career.

The 34-year-old is giving every indication he is targeting a fight for the undisputed world heavyweight championship against Oleksandr Usyk.

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The Ukrainian defended the WBA, WBO and IBF belts on Saturday when he won his rematch with Anthony Joshua.

After his last bout Usyk went as far to declare that the only contest he was interested in now was Fury.

Usyk's promoter, Alex Krassyuk has already told Sky Sports the Tyson Fury fight is "in the making".

Fury's decision to retain the WBC belt is another step towards that showdown.

"Both fighters want it," Frank Warren, Fury's co-promoter has said.

"I'm confident we can make it happen and crown Tyson Fury as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.

"It will be the biggest heavyweight fight in my time in boxing."

The fight boxing needs

There should be one champion, shouldn't there? But it's been almost 20 years since boxing had an undisputed heavyweight king.

Lennox Lewis was universally recognised as the number one heavyweight in the world. After his retirement in 2003 the division was dominated by Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko. They would hold all four of the major titles between them but of course the two brothers would never fight one another.

Tyson Fury beat Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 to scatter three of the belts, while Deontay Wilder would pick up the WBC crown that same year.

Fury was out of the sport for two years. Anthony Joshua then unified the WBO, WBA and IBF titles in an impressive championship winning run. But he never fought Wilder when the American had the WBC belt.

It was Fury who came back in 2018 to beat Wilder. A clash between the two Britons when both were champions was never put together and now Joshua has lost twice decisively to Usyk.

That makes Usyk a new threat in the division. The significance of Fury-Usyk potentially happening is that at long last the top two heavyweights in the world will box one another to decide who is number one. It is exactly the type of fight boxing needs.

The simplest question for boxing - which for far too long has not had a simple solution, has been: who is the true heavyweight champion?

If Fury-Usyk can be made, the sport will finally get the answer it needs.

The biggest fight in the history of women's boxing - Claressa Shields vs Savannah Marshall - is live on Sky Sports on Saturday September 10. Be part of history and buy tickets for the London showdown here.