(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) By Scott Gilfoid: If Deontay Wilder (32-0, 32 KOs) gets past his big test against WBC heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne (24-1-1, 21 KOs) this Saturday night in their fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, Deontay says he’d entertain the prospect of defending his WBC title against the loud-talking British heavyweight Tyson Fury (23-0, 17 KOs) later in the year.
A lot would depend on how Fury does in his next couple of fights against Christian Hammer (17-3, 10 KOs) and IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. Fury faces Hammer on February 28th at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
If Fury win that match-up, he’ll then face Wladimir later in the year for his title. Fury would have to beat both Hammer and Wladimir in order to face Deontay, unless Fury chooses not to take the fight against Wladimir.
I can’t see that happening. Deontay isn’t going to burn up a valuable title defense facing Fury if he gets whipped first by Wladimir Klitschko. As such, Fury will need to beat both Hammer and Wladimir in order to get a shot against the 6’7” Deontay. That’s a tall order beating Wladimir, because Fury has looked pretty average since turning pro in 2008, and he’ll likely struggle just to beat Hammer.
“If that fight [Wilder-Fury] does take place – in my perfect world – I would love to have a title defence against Tyson Fury, maybe in the UK, over there at the end of the year, then a unification bout against Klitschko,” Deontay said via Skysports.com. “That would be a hell of a year. We’ve already seen Tyson on the ground a couple of times with the small heavyweights. That’s my only concern. If he gets hit by Wladimir, what will happen? Will he get up?”
I don’t think Fury will last long against Wladimir, I really don’t. That’s the whole problem. For Deontay to face Fury, he’d have to be willing to take the fight with Fury coming off of a knockout loss to Wladimir. I know the World Boxing Council threw Britain’s George Groves a huge bone in letting him fight in a WBC super middleweight title eliminator after suffering back to back knockout losses to Carl Froch.
Groves stll win the fight against the little known light punching Christpher Rebrasse in order to get a title shot against WBC super middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell. I think the WBC might require that Fury at least beat one contender before he gets a shot against Deontay. In other words, they’re not going to lets Fury get a title shot if he’s coming off of a knockout loss to Wladimir. Fury will likely need at least one credible win before he could be eligible for a fight against Wilder.
If everything falls into place we could see a Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury fight in late 2015 or early 2016, but that’s still a big if. Deontay has a tough fight ahead of him on Saturday night against Stiverne and he could very well lose that fight. I don’t think he will, but it’s always possible. But as far as Fury goes, I don’t think there’s a chance he’ll get past Wladimir. He doesn’t have the power or chin to beat a talent like that.
Comments are closed.