By Scott Gilfoid: Tyson Fury says he’ll be traveling to Las Vegas, Nevada in December to face WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder. The fight still hasn’t been officially confirmed despite what Fury says. Fury says the deal with Wilder was made in just two days. Whether that’s true or not is open for debate.
What does seem to be true is the negotiations between the two fighters have been moving a long a lot faster than Wilder’s failed negotiations with heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. It obviously helps when a fighter like Fury wants to make the fight with Wilder. We didn’t see a string interest from Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn in a fight with Wilder, which is why the match didn’t get made.
The boxing world will need to wait a little while longer before the Wilder-Fury fight is made official by Wilder and Fury’s management. Fury (26-0, 19 KOs) is getting a little ahead of his promoter Frank Warren in breaking the news of his fight with Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) for December before he announced it.
“Las Vegas is the destination, so I’ve been told. December is the month, 2018 is the year,” Fury said to BehindTheGloves. “It’s going to be a massive boxing event. You’ve got two of the biggest heavyweights in the world, the tallest with the biggest mouths; one from America [and] one from the United Kingdom. It’s going to be an epic battle.”
Fury, 29, doesn’t think too highly of Joshua for the way that he’s avoided the fight with the 6’7” Wilder. Fury says it’s absolutely “disgraceful” how Joshua turned down $80 million for a fight against Wilder. Joshua chose to bail out of the negotiations with Wilder in order to take a smaller money fight against Alexander Povetkin on September 22. That fight is expected to make Joshua between $10-12 million instead of the guaranteed $50 million he could have made in facing Wilder plus an additional $30 million for the rematch. Fury is not only willing to fight Wilder. He’s ready to face him in the U.S in Las Vegas in December.
“Me and Deontay have been back and forth for years,” Fury said. “I think he’s great for boxing. He’s a great world champion and he’s the most dangerous heavyweight out there baring none.”
Fury, 6’9”, still needs to take care of business against former two time world title challenger Francesco Pianeta this month on August 18 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Fury can’t blow it against the 6’5” Pianeta if he wants the big money fight against Wilder in December. A loss for Fury against Pianeta will spoil everything.
Fury has been openly disgusted with the way that Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn arguably dodged the Wilder fight by turning down the fight. Fury thinks they made the Brits look bad the way they swerved Wilder. Fury wants to show them what a courageous fighter does by taking the Wilder fight in just his third fight of his comeback after 2 ½ years out of the ring. What Fury is about to do in facing Wilder in just his third fight is something that would be unthinkable for someone like Joshua, who has been managed carefully by Hearn since he turned pro in 2013. In the five years of Joshua’s career, Hearn hasn’t matched him against the dangerous fighters. The only dangerous fighter that Hearn has matched Joshua against is Wladimir Klitschko, who was 41-years-old, coming off of a 2-year layoff and a one-sided
12 round decision loss to Fury in his previous fight before facing Joshua in 2017. Hearn has never matched Joshua against the following heavyweights: Luis Ortiz, Deontay Wilder and David Haye. I add Haye’s name because that’s a guy that Hearn should have matched against Joshua before he made the Haye vs. Tony Bellew fight. Haye had been calling Joshua out for years without any luck. Ultimately, you have to blame Joshua for him never having fought Haye, Wilder and Ortiz, because he’s the captain of his ship. Joshua shapes his own destiny because Hearn takes his orders from him at the end of the day, not the other way around.
“It’s been very, very easy [to make the fight]. We basically did this deal in two days, it’s been the most straightforward, not complicated, deal that I have ever done. I’ve found his full team and him gentlemen to deal with, straightforward and very, very easy,” Fury said.
Fury says that his dealings with Wilder’s management have been some of the smoothest dealings he’s had in making a fight. It’s been a really good experience for Fury in working with Wilder’s team to put together a fight against him. It hasn’t been a huge problem in putting the fight together.
If the Fury vs. Wilder fight doesn’t get made, there will be a lot of disappointed boxing fans, because right now fans are excited about the prospects of these two giant heavyweights battling it out in Las Vegas in December. It’s a monstrous fight for any venue. Fans all over the world want to see Fury and Wilder mix it up, and now they’re about to get the chance. Fingers crossed the fight gets made.
“If I was a really greedy person then I suppose that it would be hard to deal with but with Deontay, we know where it is, we’re both fair men and we treat each other with respect with regards to the business side of things and on the night, we’ll kick each other around that ring,” Fury said.
If this fight turns out to be an exciting war between these two giant heavyweights, it’s easy to see a huge money rematch taking place in the UK. A rematch between Fury and Wilder is a given. It’s too big of a fight for there not to be at least two to three fights. It’s unclear whether there’s a rematch clause in the contract. One of the disappointing things about the Joshua-Wilder negotiations is there was a rematch clause in the contract that only worked one-way in Joshua’s favor. In other words, if Joshua were to beat Wilder, he could move on without giving the talented American a rematch. If Wilder won, then Joshua could force a rematch. It was a bad deal for Wilder to agree to the contract with a one-way rematch clause.
I wouldn’t say that ALL Americans are laughing at British heavyweights, as Fury stated in the interview. I think some Americas are laughing at Joshua for not accepting the $50 million guaranteed offer for a Wilder fight. The U.S fans aren’t laughing at Fury, especially now that he’s willing to do what Joshua wasn’t willing to do in facing Wilder. It’s going to make Joshua look incredibly bad if Fury defeats Wilder. Joshua would have missed his chance. Call it a failure of never or whatever. Joshua chose not to take the fight with Wilder when he had the chance to take it. Fury was the one that had the nerve to take the match against Deontay. Hopefully, Joshua can learn from this and be more willing in the future to take risks with his career by facing the talented heavyweights instead of rejecting the fight and taking less risky fights against old guys like Alexander Povetkin.
Fury says he knows that there was a definitely $80 million offer on the table for Joshua to take for two fights against Deontay, which he chose not to accept for some strange reason. Fury says someone he knows saw the proof of the funds. Fury believes Joshua opted not to take the $80 million smackers for the Wilder fight in order to take Alexander Povetkin, which is a far easier opponent for him to deal with. Povetkin is 6’2″, and not nearly the same kind of fighter that Wilder is. There’s very little threat for Joshua against Povetkin compared to what he would be dealing with if he fought Wilder.