Heavyweight Fury to make Vegas debut against Schwarz

It will be Fury’s first fight since signing a big money deal with US broadcaster ESPN worth a reported £80m for five fights.

It will also be his first bout since his controversial draw with WBC champion Deontay Wilder in December.

Fury said: “I’m very fit, very ready; I can’t wait to fight.

“Schwarz is unbeaten, young, fresh and ambitious.

“When you start as a little kid, you dream of cracking America.

“I am going to go back and be on the biggest possible audience.”

Schwarz, 24, is currently ranked number two in the world with the WBO and has a record of 24-0 with 18 wins coming via stoppage.

Fury’s promoter Frank Warren explained why the heavyweight’s next fight will be against Schwarz: “He’s one of the list of opponents we’ve put forward and the bottom line is he’s ranked number two in the WBO.

“He’s undefeated, he’s 24-0, Tyson was 24-0 when he won the world title against (Wladimir) Klitschko.

“It’s going to be a fight that he hopefully wins, I’m not taking anything for granted, it’s a fight that will establish him on the ESPN network in the States and get him to a wider audience which will enable us to make the bigger fights.”

A rematch with Deontay Wilder had looked likely but negotiations stalled, and the choice of opponent has received criticism by many.

Warren responded: “We made it very clear at the end of the day that we want to be there with equal strength at the negotiation table.

“The fact that Deontay was champion, it had to be on a PBC show and it had to be them promoting it.

“From our perspective, we want a situation where we can go and say ‘we’ll pay you Deontay, to come and take the fight’.

“And that’s really what it’s about, building Tyson and the fact of the matter is that he is going to get more exposure in the States than Deontay and Anthony Joshua combined with the channel.

“They’re in 75 per cent of the homes in America.”