Price gives Fury a Thursday deadline

British heavyweight titleholder Tyson Fury has until Thursday to accept an offer to face mandatory challenger and English champion David Price.

Price’s manager, Frank Maloney, has confirmed that a formal ‘take it or leave it’ approach is now on the table of their Manchester rival -- who is also the Commonwealth titleholder -- with a 48-hour deadline attached.

Should Fury (17-0, 12 knockouts) dodge what would be a cracking domestic tear-up, between two of the division’s most promising still-undefeated contenders, then Maloney will look to take Liverpool star Price (12-0, 10 KOs) to the United States instead. A possible bout against French-born heavyweight veteran Josue Blocus in Atlantic City has been pencilled in for late March.

But UK promoter Maloney, who helped steer Lennox Lewis to the top of the heavyweight world, clearly favours the first option for 28-year-old Price.

"We have made a formal offer to Fury and they have until Thursday to agree terms," Maloney said. "We want that fight as quick as possible -- he's got to defend it by the end of May but we're looking at April. I want to keep him fighting, keep him working."

Maloney is supremely confident that Price, who took just 73 seconds to stop John McDermott in their recent British eliminator, is already a class above Fury -- and warns they are in no mood to hang around.

“I don’t want to hold up David’s career, and if Tyson Fury doesn’t want to fight him, he should just say so and stop wasting everyone’s time,” Maloney told the Daily Star Sunday. “Fury is fighting bums.”