TYSON FURY's long-overdue undisputed heavyweight title fight with Oleksandr Usyk could take place as early as "December".
Fury's constant moving of the goalposts during negotiations earlier this year laid waste to the pair's proposed April Wembley war.
That paved the way for the Gypsy King to throw down with former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in a controversial crossover clash next month.
Team Fury are treating the lucrative Saudi showdown as a potential warm-up fight and aren't ruling out a quick turnaround for an end-of-year straightener with boxing's former pound-for-pound king.
When asked for a potential date for the fight, Fury co-promoter Bob Arum told Sky Sports: "Probably be early next year, but it could happen as early as December."
Arum expects both sides to come to a quick and amicable agreement when talks eventually resume – despite the farcical public negotiations that took place earlier this year.
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The 91-year-old Top Rank chief insisted: "It won't be hard to make. I know the Usyk people, they're nice people.
"His manager, his promoter, they're terrific people. Usyk himself is a terrific guy. I think he wants that fight.
"I think that fight's going to happen and hopefully it will happen sooner rather than later."
Should Fury become the first undisputed ruler of the heavyweight division since Lennox Lewis 24 years ago, Arum expects him to have "two more fights" before calling it quits.
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The veteran promoter said: "I would like to see him (Fury) fight Usyk.
"I think once he fights Usyk, and assuming he beats Usyk, then I think he’ll do a victory lap, maybe two more fights, and let the younger guys take over."
Arum's hopes to have Fury unify the division once and for all, however, could be scuppered by the Wythenshawe warrior himself.
Fury, 35, recently told The Daily Mail: "I am not interested in fighting Usyk, he's a little Ukrainian dosser.
"That's all he is to me. No interest in unifying the division. It doesn't mean s*** to me.
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"All that stuff about unifying and whatever, it really doesn't mean anything to me.
"I am looking for the biggest payday. Most of the time, Usyk doesn't cut it.
"He's just a foreign person who doesn't speak good English, so you can't really sell him.
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