By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder feels very confident that his fight against unbeaten Tyson Fury will get made in the coming months. The unbeaten Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) had previously been hoping he could negotiate a fight with heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, but when he rejected what is reportedly an $80 million offer, the negotiations fizzled quickly. Wilder is now looking for a fight against the lineal champion Fury, who is a lot easier to negotiate.
What’s surprising is how quickly the negotiations have moved for the Fury-Wilder fight. You haven’t had to hear how Fury turned down huge money to face Wilder like Joshua is said to have done. Fury actually seems to want the fight with Wilder, which is a breath of fresh air to say the least. This is how negotiations are supposed to be done between two warriors. With the Joshua-Wilder negotiations, it seems like Joshua was less than willing to make the fight. One could tell that the fight wasn’t going to get made after a while once the news leaked that AJ had turned down a $50 million offer to face Wilder.
Wilder vs. Fury is going to be a big fight no matter where it takes place. The winner of the match will be a potential option for Joshua to fight on April 13. From the sounds of it, Wilder and Fury will be agreeing to a fair deal that won’t favor either fighter in a huge way like the deal that was offered by Joshua’s promoter for Deontay. That was a flat fee offer of $15 million for a fight that could have ultimately pulled in over $100 million. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Joshua would make untold riches if Wilder signs the contract for that deal.
“I believe 100 percent that this fight is going to happen and it’s going to get done,” said Wilder to Ringtv.com. “We’re very, very close. Very, very close. Closer than Joshua and me could ever get in a lifetime. It’s definitely gonna happen, there’s no doubt. There’s just a little more work to be done.”
Fury needs to lose the remaining tonnage before a fight against him and Deontay can be taken seriously by the fans. The good news is there’s more enough time for the 6’9” Wilder to trim off the stubborn lard to get back to his old fighting weigh of 250 pounds by the time he faces the Bronze Bomber in December. Fury needs to win his next fight against the two-time heavyweight world title challenger Francesco Pianeta on August 18 at Windsor Park in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
If Fury isn’t in good shape, the 33-year-old Pianeta will do a number on him. Pianeta’s punch resistance is horrible, but he does well against feather fisted fighters. This is a fight where Fury won’t have a huge height and reach advantage like he’s been accustomed to enjoying his career. Pianeta has the size to nail Fury with his shots. If Fury isn’t in good shape for this fight, he might not win. Fury can forget about Wilder if he tastes defeat at the hands of Pianeta.
If Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn is willing to give an even split 50-50 percentage deal to the winner of the Wilder vs. Fury fight, then one of them will be facing AJ on April 13 at Wembley Stadium. However, with Hearn’s mindset stuck on him being the A-side in negotiations, it’s unlikely that he’ll be able to face the winner or the loser of the Fury-Wilder fight. As long as Hearn is believes that Joshua’s highly talented opponents like Wilder don’t rate parity in the negotiations, he’s not going to be able to put together the fight. That’s unfortunate for the boxing world because they’ll have to be satisfied with watching Joshua fight the likes of Alexander Povekin, Dillian Whyte and Jarrell Miller. That’s as good as it gets for Joshua as long as Hearn offers flat fee deals.
“This is going to be better than Joshua when it all boils down to it, and we know Tyson Fury, in many eyes, is still the champ, he hasn’t been defeated,” Wilder said. “He’s still undefeated. He’s still the lineal champion. Once I knock him off, I become that man who beat the man.”
Wilder vs. Fury will more interesting than Wilder-Joshua because of the different things that Tyson brings to the fight. Joshua is pretty much a straight up slugger. You never know what Wilder would have to deal with in terms of the judging and the referee for a fight against Joshua. Wilder would have to make sure that he took the judges out of the fight for him to make sure that he didn’t wind up losing the fight.