By Scott Gilfoid: Former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury says negotiations for a fight between him and World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder are ”very close” to being done for this December. Earlier on Monday, Fury’s promoter Frank Warren revealed the news that he’s confident he can make the Fury-Wilder fight for November or December.
This is earth-shattering news for the boxing world, as it wasn’t thought previously by fans that Fury would be ready to challenge for a world title until at least 2019 at the earliest. For Fury to be on the verge of facing the unbeaten Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) for his WBC title in the next four to five months, it’s surprising to say the least.
Fury is risking his big money payday fight against Anthony Joshua by facing Wilder in December. It’s a big gamble on Fury’s part in facing Wilder in November or December rather than taking soft job opponents until he faces Joshua. Few boxing fans believe Fury will be ready to take on Wilder after just two fights after returning from a 2 ½ year inactive period. The Fury that beat Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 would be a problem for Wilder. Unfortunately, Fury has yet to regain the form that he had in 2015, and there’s a lot of doubts whether he’ll ever get back to that level again.
The ring rusty Fury doesn’t believe in taking his time in easing back to the top level competition. Fury emerged from a two and a half year break from boxing last month in defeating Sefer Seferi by a 4th round knockout on June 9 in Manchester, England. Fury will be fighting next on August 18 against two-time heavyweight world title challenger Francesco Pianeta at Windsor Park in Belfast, Northern Ireland. This is a tune-up fight for Fury. There’s now a lot of pressure on the 29-year-old Fury to make sure he doesn’t slip on any banana skins in that fight, as a loss to the 6’5” Pianeta would ruin his chances of challenging Deontay in November or December. There’s a lot of sweet cash up for grabs for Fury when/if he faces Wilder at the end of the year. Losing to Pianeta is NOT an option. Fury is in a must-win situation if he wants to share in the plunder in the Wilder fight.
“I can confirm me and Deontay Wilder are in negotiations. It’s very close to being done,” Fury said on his Instagram. ”Frank [Warren] told you all on Talksport this morning. I can reveal negotiations are going very strong for December. We’re almost done with this deal, so I won’t be overlooking Francesco Pianeta. He’s going to give me the right fight and the right work to prepare me for Deontay Wilder. I’ve got to flatten him first, and then Wilder. Let’s dance,” said Fury.
Fury, 29, sounds pretty confident that the Wilder fight is going to get made for December. This is an opportunity for Fury to put himself at the top of the heavyweight division in one fight. If Fury can take Wilder’s scalp in December, then it will help increase his chances of getting a 50-50 purse split for a unification fight against Anthony Joshua on April 13 next year at Wembley Stadium. There’s a lot of money to be made for Fury if he beats Wilder. All Fury needs to do is find a way to defeat Deontay Wilder and it’s all gravy from this point on. Even if Fury is obliterated by Joshua next April, he’ll be so incredibly rich that it won’t even matter.
Getting past Wilder may prove to be impossible for Fury unfortunately. Wilder is thought to be the best heavyweight on the planet by a lot of boxing fans. That’s not a knock on Joshua, as he’s a fine heavyweight. However, the fact of the matter is, Joshua has been spoon-fed by his promoter Eddie Hearn since he turned pro in 2013, and he’s never had to face anyone good. The best that Hearn could do is feed an old 41-year-old ring rusty Wladimir Klitschko to Joshua in 2017, and he still almost like to the Ukrainian. Wladimir had previously been handled with ease by Fury in his previous fight two years earlier in November 2015. Fury made it look easy beating Klitschko. Joshua in contrast was incredibly lucky he didn’t get knocked out by the big 6’6” Wladimir.
I don’t know how much preparation the 6’5” Pianeta can give Fury to help him get ready for a title challenge against the 6’7” Wilder. The only thing the 240+-pound Pianeta can give Fury is an approximation of the size that he’ll be dealing with in a bout against the 210-pound Wilder. Pianeta is shorter than Wilder, heavier, weaker and a lot slower. The only thing that Pianeta has in common with Wilder is his height, age and the fact that they both fight out of the orthodox [right-hand] stance. Pianeta is 33, whereas Wilder is 32. Those are minimal comparisons. Wilder is much faster of hand and foot, and the far more lethal puncher.
”You’ve been dealing with [expletive] houses in the past with Eddie Hearn and [Anthony] Joshua,” Fury said. “I’m a man of my word. If I say ‘I’ll fight you,’ I’ll fight you, end of. Prepare well. Train hard. I’m going to knock Francesco Pianeta into next week. I’m going to knock you [Deontay] the spark out too. Good luck,” Fury said.
It does look incredibly bad that IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua is being beaten o he punch by Tyson ‘Too Fast’ Fury in getting the fight against Deontay. The entire boxing world wanted to see Joshua face Wilder in September, but AJ’s promoter Eddie Hearn was unable to negotiate the fight. It’s believed that the stumbling block in the negotiations was the lack of a date and venue for the fight. The one-way rematch clause for Joshua only didn’t help matters. If Joshua had won, he would have been able to walk away without a rematch. However, if Wilder won, then there would be a rematch if Joshua wanted a second fight. A lot of boxing fans simply believed that Joshua didn’t fancy the fight with Wilder. So instead of Joshua taking on Wilder, he’s facing 38-year-old Alexander Povetkin on September 22 at the 90,000 seat Wembley Stadium in London, England. That’s a huge venue for a fight that the boxing public isn’t interested in seeing. It’s unclear what Hearn will do to try and sell tickets for that match. Perhaps the tickets will be reduced in price in order to lure fans to come see Joshua beat up the much smaller and older Povetkin.
With no punching power to speak of, Fury is going to be at a huge disadvantage against Wilder. Fury, 6’9”, is used to having a huge height and reach advantage over his opponents. In the case of Wilder, Fury will have only a two-inch reach advantage, which isn’t nearly enough for him to be able to stay at range and beat the 6’7 Wilder. Fury will be vulnerable in this fight. He’s going to need to be able to take Wilder’s shots. Against Klitschko, Fury did a lot of leaning backwards to avoid Wladimir’s initial right hands thrown from long range. Wladimir failed to reload his right hand when in close after his initial misses. Wilder is a different story. When he misses with a right hand, he immediately fires a short right hand to nail his opponents at close range. For a tall fighter, Wilder has excellent punching power on the inside. What this means is Fury will not be safe at any time in the fight. He can’t depend on leaning with his back far over the top ropes to avoid Wilder’s sledgehammer right hands. If Fury does that, Wilder will lean over and tag him with a head shot. There will be no sanctuary for Fury inside the ring against Wilder. He either stands and fights Wilder or else he’ll get obliterated in short order.