By Allan Fox: Deontay Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) arrived in London, England on Sunday for his press conference with challenger Tyson Fury this Monday. WBC heavyweight champion Wilder and former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO champion Fury (27-0, 19 KOs) will be meeting in London on October 1st to start hyping their December 1 fight on Showtime PPV at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
The London press conference is part of a three-city promotional tour. Following their meeting in London on Monday, Wilder and Fury will travel to New York on Tuesday to meet with the press in New York City at 12:30 ET. From there, Wilder-Fury will conclude their 3-city promotional tour on Wednesday in Los Angeles at 3:30 ET.
#BLESSED to be the best, Amen#BombZquad #WilderVsFury pic.twitter.com/V8CyC60Qhw
— Deontay Wilder (@BronzeBomber) September 30, 2018
Wilder vs. Fury is going is expected to make more money than IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua’s last fight against Alexander Povetkin. Wilder, 32, has an opportunity to win the lineal title in defeating the unbeaten 30-year-old Fury, who defeated Wladimir Klitschko three years ago in Germany. More importantly for Wilder, a victory over Fury will put more pressure on Joshua (22-0, 21 KOs) and his seemingly reluctant promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing to make the fight with Deontay and give a fair offer. Joshua and Hearn have talked a lot about wanting to make the fight with Wilder, but they’ve shown that they don’t want the fight by rejecting a $50 million offer, taking a soft fight against Alexander Povetkin and offering him flat fees instead of a percentage deal.
A knockout win for Wilder will put pressure on Joshua and Hearn to make the fight. The boxing public will put the pressure on those two to finally negotiate the fight for April 13 at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Joshua created a Twitter poll recently asking the fans to pick his next opponent. Out of three fighters, Wilder, Dillian Whyte and Fury, Wilder captured the poll. Joshua asked for $50 million to fight Wilder. When Team Wilder came up with the $50 million, Joshua rejected it and chose to fight Povetkin instead, saying that he had to take care of his WBA mandatory.
“This is the biggest heavyweight fight in modern day boxing history,” Fury said on Twitter. “Never before have we seen 2 unbeaten champions go tow2tow for the fans! Both big personalities & both over 6”6 this should be a fight to remember. Let the games begin. Let’s get this party started. @BronzeBomber.”
Fury isn’t expected to beat Wilder, so he’s got very little pressure on him in this fight. Fury has only fought twice and not looked good in either of his comeback fights since returning from a three-year layoff from boxing. Fury can spoil Wilder’s dream fight against Joshua if he beats him on December 1. It’s going to be hard for fury to win this fight because he doesn’t have the hand speed or power to pull off the upset. He does have the boxing ability to give Wilder fits if he’s able to make him miss all night long like he did in his fight against Wladimir Klitschko in 2015.