Terry Lane, co-manager of Chinese heavyweight Zhilei Zhang, would love to match his fighter against WBC world champion Tyson Fury.
The two sides were in serious talks earlier this year, and a deal appeared to be close, but then Joe Joyce derailed those discussions by exercising an immediate rematch clause to force a second encounter with Zhang.
Last Saturday night in London, Zhang blew away Joyce in three rounds with a brutal one-punch knockout. Their first encounter in April saw Zhang stop Joyce in six rounds.
Fury is back in the ring on October 28, in a non-title fight, when he faces former UFC world champion Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia.
While Lane would like to see Fury-Zhang next, he believes the unbeaten champion will look to make a deal for an undisputed fight with IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk.
“We would love to fight Fury, but I do believe they are trying to make Fury vs Usyk next,” Lane told Sky Sports.
“We’ve got to see in a few weeks if they make that fight. If not, we’re not going to sit back and wait. There’s other names like (Deontay) Wilder out there, so it’s just really hard to say, but I do think after last night, there’s Usyk, Fury and Zhilei and then everyone else [in the heavyweight division.]
“But Zhilei is 40-years-old, he wants to fight big names and guys like Wilder are out there and we’re just going to have to see what happens.”
With the recent victory, Zhang retained the WBO’s interim-world title – which makes him the mandatory challenger to Usyk. However, Usyk is already tied to his next mandatory obligation, under the IBF, to unbeaten Filip Hrgovic – who secured his shot with a close, and some felt controversial, decision win over Zhang.