By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (33-0, 32 KOs) says the boxing world would prefer that he faces #1 WBO Tyson Fury (23-0, 17 KOs) next rather than IBF/IBO/WBAWBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (63-3, 53 KOs) in his first fight as the WBC champion.
It’s easy to see why Wilder would want to fight the 6’9” Fury first. It’s a potentially more interesting fight for him and the boxing fans, because the two of them would be trash talking each other the moment the contracts are signed.
Wladimir, 38, is too quiet, uptight and he rarely trash talks his opponents.
“I think the world wants to see the Fury fight, and the Klitschko fight comes right behind it,” Wilder said to ESPN. “I would knock him out. Even when the little guys tag him, he falls.”
Unfortunately, Wilder will likely not be fighting either of these guys next. Fury has already made it clear that he’s waiting on getting a world title fight against Wladimir. Fury doesn’t see a fight against Wilder as nearly as interesting, although Fury says he’d consider facing him next if the money is right. But it’s very likely that Fury will keep himself waiting for the Wladimir fight until he eventually gets the shot.
The interest in a Fury-Wilder fight will likely dissipate considerably once Wladimir knocks Fury out or beats him by a decision. There’s a lot of interest in the Fury vs. Wilder fight right now due to both guys being unbeaten. But if Fury gets trounced by Wladimir, like many boxing fans think will happen, we’ll see a huge drop in the interest in a fight between the two young giants.
It’s going to take Fury a long, long time to rebuild himself after a loss to Wladimir, and I don’t see Wilder waiting around for that to happen. Wilder will be doing his own thing. The thing with Fury is he could very well get beaten by someone else after he loses to Wladimir if his promoter puts Fury in with someone that can actually fight instead of the fodder that he built his unbeaten resume on. If Fury gets matched against Alexander Povetkin, Carlos Takam, Bryant Jennings and Kubrat Pulev, he’s going to likely get beaten.
If you notice, Fury hasn’t been matched up against any of those guys during his career. Instead, we’ve seen Fury get matched up against a lot of journeyman and domestic level fighters like Dereck Chisora, Martin Rogan and Steve Cunningham. Fury’s promoter has been very careful with the guys he’s put him in with, and I suspect that soft match-making will continue once he gets beaten to a pulp by Wladimir.
If Fury beats Wladimir, and that’s a big if, it’ll setup a huge unification fight with Wilder in the future. I suspect that Wladimir will have a rematch clause in his contract with Fury, so even if Wladimir does lose, he’ll get an immediate rematch without Fury being able to get away to fight Wilder. Fury won’t fight the rematch because the money would be so good the second time around once he has all the titles in his possession.
Comments are closed.