By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder is hoping to face former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury when he eventually returns to the ring in the future. Fury is taking a break from boxing for a while to take care of problems. He’s vacated his titles, and it’s anyone’s guess when he’ll return to the ring. It’s possible that Fury could be back in action as early as next year.
Wilder is willing to fight Fury whether he’s holding s world title or not. It’s not likely that we’ll see Fury take a dangerous fight against Wilder for a world title shot. If Fury is going to take a risky fight for a big payday, it’s likely going to be against IBF heavyweight champion or Wladimir Klitschko if he’s able to beat Joshua in their fight next year.
It’s possible that Fury won’t come back. He didn’t seem to be too interested in returning to the ring before he vacated his titles. If Fury isn’t motivated 100 percent when he does return to the ring, he’s probably not going to be successful against anyone, let alone a talent like Deontay.
Wilder said this to skysports.com about wanting a fight against Fury when he comes back:
“I look forward to the return of Tyson Fury because we didn’t promote that fight all year for nothing; trust me,” Wilder said. “That one’s got to happen, whether he’s got a belt or not. I hope to see Tyson back in the ring, and I think he will return. I have prayed for his recovery. He’s a great guy. You’ve got to understand a person – where they came from, and where they’re trying to go.”
I doubt that Fury is going to want to tangle with the 6’7” Wilder straightaway when he does return to boxing in 2017 or 2018. We’ll almost surely see Fury go through a cycle of weaker domestic level opponents for a year or so before he starts looking to take on the bigger names. If Fury chooses to take the Ronda Rousey approach by going straight into the toughest match possible after a year or two out of the ring, he’s probably going to get thrashed against the likes of Anthony Joshua. If Fury loses badly to Joshua, then there won’t be much of a reason for Wilder to fight him.
It would be getting sloppy seconds at that point, and the interest in the fight would be almost zero from boxing fans. Wilder isn’t going to make big news fighting Fury if he’s coming off of a 1st round knockout loss to Joshua. I would hope that Fury’s management wouldn’t throw him in with Wilder after he loses to Joshua. That would be bad for Fury. He would need to be rebuilt after a devastating loss before he could be thrown into the ring with someone good like Deontay. I just have a feeling that Fury will go for the big cash out fight first when he returns to the ring so that he can get that guaranteed payday before he starts losing to other contenders and such.
Fury, 28, hasn’t fought since his 12 round unanimous decision win over 40-year-old Wladimir Klitschko last year in November. He was supposed to have fought Wladimir in a rematch in July, but Fury pulled out of the fight with an injury. Fury pulled out of another scheduled rematch as well. With the time that Fury will have been out of the ring, he’s going to need a lot of tune-ups when he does return to boxing in the future.
If Fury goes ahead and fights Joshua or whoever the big name is at the time right away, then you have to figure that he’s just looking to cash out with the biggest payday possible. When fighters don’t even bother taking tune-ups after long layoffs, it sends a red flag that they’re looking for the payday fight rather than wanting to rebuild properly. I don’t think Fury will do that. I think he’ll take the tune-ups so that he can give himself the best chance possible to succeed.
Wilder (37-0, 36 KOs) is out of action from an injury he sustained in his last fight against Chris Arreola last July in Birmingham, Alabama. Wilder injured his right hand and bicep in the 4th round of the fight after dropping Arreola. Wilder went on to batter Arreola with his left hand until the right was halted in the 8th. Wilder has since had surgery on his injured right arm.