British heavyweight Hughie Fury will be ready to challenge WBC world heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder on September 26.

Fury (16-0, 8 KOs), who is ranked at No.33 in the latest WBC ratings, has emerged as a surprise candidate for American Wilder’s (34-0, 33 KOs) second world title defence, possibly at the Barclays Center in New York.

The 20-year-old (16-0, 8 KOs) is the cousin of Tyson Fury (24-0, 18 KOs) and will beat his more experienced training partner to a world title shot if a deal is confirmed in the next few days. Tyson challenges world heavyweight No.1 Wladimir Klitschko for the WBA, WBO and IBF world titles in Germany on October 24.

“We got a call from one of our associates in America and asked if Hughie would take the fight,” Peter Fury told ESPN. “We said yes but it would we would need seven or eight weeks, so the end of September would be fine.

“Four weeks was mentioned but we would need more than that to get Hughie ready. It’s not about the money, it’s about giving Hughie a chance to win the fight.

“We would take the fight no problem at all if it was late September, that’s enough time to prepare. Anything can happen when you put a pair of gloves on and get in that ring.”

Wilder, who knocked out Eric Molina in the ninth round two months ago, is looking for an opponent for one more voluntary defence before he will have to make a mandatory defence against Russian Alexander Povetkin early next year.

Hughie Fury out-pointed 41-year-old Brazilian George Arias (56-12-0) over ten rounds late last month and in February also got a ten-round decision over Ukrainian Andriy Rudenko (26-2, 17 KOs) in Monaco, his best win since turning professional in 2013.

Courtesy ESPN/Nick Parkinson