Tyson Fury continues to have talks to fight Dillian Whyte in the UK, according to Bob Arum. 

It has been reported that the Gypsy King has been ordered by the WBC to defend his belt against the Body Snatcher.

The two have been on a collision course for a number of years now, but it seems they could finally be about to meet for the first time later this year.

Fury took part in one of the best heavyweight fights in the history of boxing with Deontay Wilder, retaining his WBC and Ring magazine titles with a knockout win over the Bronze Bomber in their trilogy fight last October. 

Whyte meanwhile, got back to winning ways after beating Russian Alexander Povetkin at the start of last spring. 

Fury's promoter and CEO of Top Rank, Arum, has said conversations are still ongoing, with the American hopeful an agreement can be reached before the fight goes to purse bids later this week. 

Speaking to talkSPORT, he said: “I think unless an agreement is reached with Dillian Whyte, it [the purse bid] will go ahead sometime in the coming week.

“Maybe not on Tuesday, maybe on Friday, but there it is.

“The WBC has decreed that Whyte will get 20 per cent of the purse bid and if the purse bid goes ahead, we’ll figure out what that 20 per cent comes to…

“I’m always optimistic that a deal gets done before the purse bid.

“I don’t think a purse bid does anybody any good.

“I think the parties should sit down, there’s plenty of money involved, and just work out a normal deal…

“Obviously there’s talks to try and settle the matter so it goes ahead without purse bids.”

But if a deal can't be agreed, Arum has suggested two possible alternatives - with Robert Helenius and Manuel Charr also in the running. 

Helenius knocked out Adam Kownacki on the undercard of Fury's trilogy with Wilder last year, while Charr is coming off a win over Christopher Lovejoy five months earlier. 

He added: “If Dillian Whyte is not gonna [sic] fight for whatever reason, obviously we’re not gonna [sic] keep Tyson Fury – not gonna make him pay the price of waiting.

“Fury wants to fight and wants to fight sooner rather than later.

“We can look around, get a good, decent opponent for him to fight if Whyte isn’t available…

“You’ve got guys like Robert Helenius and Manuel Charr.

“You just look at the rankings and pick a couple of guys from the rankings who would make decent opponents.”

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