Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury finalized for Dec.1 on PPV

By Boxing News - 09/22/2018 - Comments

Image: Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury finalized for Dec.1 on PPV

by Scott Gilfoid: The highly skilled 6’7″ knockout artist Deontay Wilder will be defending his WBC heavyweight title against former champion Tyson Fury on Premier boxing Champions on December 1 on PPV. The location of the fight will be revealed soon to the boxing fans along with ticket information.

Despite many doubters saying the Fury-Wilder fight wouldn’t be taking place, the fight was able to get put together without a hitch. Last Friday night, the news announcement for the Wilder vs. Fury fight was made. The network the fight will be televised on in the United states is not known at this time. Wilder, 32, usually fights on Showtime, so that would be an obvious situation for where the fight will wind up, but you never know. You can argue that the news announcement for the Wilder vs. fury fight should have been delayed until the location and the venue for the fight was known, but it’s understandable why they might have wanted the fight to be announced right now.

Tonight, Anthony Joshua will be defending his IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight titles against Alexander Povetkin in a Sky Box Office and DAZN fight at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Wilder vs. Fury being announced last Friday night takes a little air out of the Joshua-Povetkin fight. Even if the information on the Wilder-Fury fight isn’t yet complete at this time, it still takes a lot of attention of what is somewhat lackluster fight between Joshua and an older fighter with a checkered track record in terms of positive tests for performance enhancing drugs. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn wanted to have him fight the 39-year-old Povetkin rather than Wilder.

Hearn went for safety over risk in matching Joshua against Povetkin instead of giving the boxing world the fight they wanted in Wilder vs. Joshua. But even when safety first promoters are trying to protect their vulnerable champions, things can go wrong. If the wheels come off the Joshua hype train tonight in a loss to Povetkin, it won’t be surprising. In terms of his cardiovasular system, Joshua isn’t suited to be world champion in my estimation. He’s got the conditioning of a 50-year-old in my opinion, and the movement of someone that age as well.

If Joshua gets through his fight against Povetkin tonight, Hearn is said to start working on the negotiations for a fight between Joshua and Wilder. Hearn says he has only 2 weeks to put the fight together. However, given that Hearn won’t know who the winner of the Wilder-Fury fight will be until December 1, it’s impossible for him to start negotiating a fight for AJ with Wilder to take place on April 13 As such, it’s painfully obvious that Hearn is just going to be using Wilder’s name for name dropping purposes only in order to get cover from the boxing world to let them believe that he’s interested in making the Joshua-Wilder fight for April 13.

The likely reality is Hearn has absolutely no intention of trying to make that fight. The fight that Hearn WILL be looking to make is pitting his own fighter Dillian Whyte in with Joshua, as long as Dillian wins his December 22 fight against an opponent still to be determined. Dereck Chisora is likely Whyte’s opponent for the December 22 fight. The two are trying to iron out a deal, and it’s possible that it will get done. Whyte wants to be the A-side for the fight, and is offering Chisora a 25% cut of the loot for the fight. It’s possible the fight will get made, but they only have 2 to 3 weeks before Hearn will need to bail on the negotiations and find someone else to fight Whyte. The Plan-B option for Whyte might not be pretty. I’m guessing someone along the lines of Dave Allen. Don’t laugh, Hearn has already matched Allen against Whyte in the past. If he did it once, he’ll do it again.

“the contracts are signed and the fight is on,” said a press release for the Wilder vs. Fury fight.

The site for the Fury vs. Wilder fight will be staged at either the Staples Center in Los Angles, California or at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Staples Center seems to be the leading option right now, although that could very well change depending on how things go with the planning.

Some money will be put on making the Wilder vs. Fury promotion a big affair, as a three-city promotional tour will be taking place starting with the kickoff news conference on October 1 in London, England. The promotional tour will stop off in New York and Lo Angeles. The dates and times still have yet to be announced.

“More details on the location, venue and the on-sale ticket information for the heavyweight championship battle will be released next week,” said the news release on the Wilder-Fury mega-fight.

In an odd move that strikes one as not showing confidence in his fighter, Hearn offered Wilder a low ball flat fee offer of $15 million rather than a percentage deal to face Joshua in September. Wilder would have had to fight Joshua in the UK in a fight that would have likely made well over $100 million. Wilder would have received just $15 million and Joshua all the rest. It would have been a great deal for Joshua had Wilder accepted it. Not only would Joshua have received the lion’s share of the cash for the fight, he also would have had home country advantage. Having seen Joshua’s controversial fights against Joseph Parker and Carlos Takam, which involved referees making odd decisions that seemed to greatly help AJ, it seems clear that Wilder would have been up against it if he had agreed to fight Joshua in the UK. What’s interesting is that even though Wilder agreed to the terms that Hearn wanted for the September fight, he bailed on the negotiations and matched Joshua against the 6’2″ Povetkin instead for September 22. It was a classic move of a promoter showing that he wanted the safe fight against the aging 40-ish Povetkin rather than the dangerous match against the talented Wilder.

Joshua could have made so much more money fighting Wilder, but instead he opted for safety in fighting Povetkin. Now if things go all wrong for Joshua tonight against Povetkin, then he’ll have really blundered by making the wrong move in facing the perceived lesser threat rather than going in the direction where the bigger payday is by facing Wilder. The kicker is that after Wilder beats Fury, his worth is going to sky rocket to where he can not only ask for a 50-50 split for the fight with Joshua but also expect to gt it. So instead of Joshua getting the 85-15 split that he would have received if Wilder had accepted the $15 million flat fee that was offered to him by Hearn, he’ll need to sweeten the offer to 50-50 to get Wilder to agree to fight him on April 13 or in September of 2019. Hearn and Joshua obviously over-played their hand by swerving the Wilder fight to take the lesser match against Povetkin.

“Just signed my portion of the contract of the Wilder versus Fury fight. It is officially on, ladies and gentlemen,” Deontay said on his Instagram site. “This fight is definitely on, and I can’t wait, man. It’s going to be an exciting fight; it’s going to be an explosive fight. It’s going to be one for the legacy, definitely one for my legacy. You got the WBC heavyweight champion of the world versus the lineal champion. It’s going to be a pleasure: the two best heavyweights competing against each other. The best fighting the best, giving the people what they want, and this is what we’re doing. I just beat, in my opinion, one of the best heavyweights in Luis Ortiz [by 10th-round knockout on March 3], and now I’m going for the next best in the heavyweight division,”

Wilder’s remark about him and Fury being the two best heavyweights in the world facing each other in talking about him and Fury is a shot at Joshua, who some boxing fans believe is the #1 heavyweight on the planet. Joshua’s performances against Wladimir Klitschko, Carlos Takam and Joseph Parker suggests that he’s not the best fighter on the planet. The way Joshua fought against those guys, he might not even be the third best. Joshua is clearly the most popular heavyweight in boxing and the biggest money maker in the division, but he hasn’t shown himself to be the best heavyweight and it’s doubtful he ever will. With the way that Hearn fumbled the negotiations for the Wilder fight, it’s quite possible that fight never takes place.