By Scott Gilfoid: The fallout of Tyson Fury’s decision to put off a rematch with WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder could lead to some interesting match-ups in the next three to four months involving Dominic Breazeale challenging ‘The Bronze Bomber’ for his title, and Joseph Parker stepping in as the potential opponent for ‘The Gypsy King’ Fury.
Unfortunately, Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KOs) and Fury aren’t going to be fighting anytime soon. Top Rank wants to milk the rematch to let it wait for a while to help make it build. They obviously can’t let the fight marinate for six years like the Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao fight did. That fight ended up making massive money by it marinating from 2009 to 2015. Those two were talented enough to stay on top of the sport for all those years. Wilder and Fury don’t possess that kind of talent, so Top Rank is going to have to put them in with each other soon.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum had hinted about wanting to have Wilder-Fury fight marinate after he signed Fury. It was thought that Fury would resist that idea of taking an interim fight out of his strong belief that he should only be fighting the best. It was a surprise to some to see Fury agree with the idea of taking an interim fight. That kind of shows you where Fury’s mindset is at, doesn’t it?
The WBC has already been notified by Top Rank that the rematch isn’t going to happen right now between Wilder and Fury in order for them to take interim fights.
Here are the likely options for Fury and Wilder’s next fights:
– Deontay Wilder vs. Dominic Breazeale: Wilder has no other choice but to defend his belt against Breazeale, because he’s the mandatory challenger. This is a good fight. Wilder wins once he connects with a hard right hand to the head of Breazeale to stun him.
– Tyson Fury vs. Joseph Parker: This isn’t a great fight, but it’ one that Top Rank almost surely put together. They co-promote Parker, so this is like a predictable fight. Parker is a limited heavyweight, as we saw in his fights against Joshua, Hughie Fury and Dillian Whyte. As long as Fury’s punch resistance is still the same since his fight with Wilder, he should be able to beat Parker. Never the less, Fury is going to need to be able to take some big shots for him to get past Parker in this fight. It’s not going to be 12 rounds of Fury pitching a shutout without getting hit. Parker is going to get his two pounds of flesh during the fight. If Fury can no longer take a solid head shot without kissing the canvas, he could lose this fight.
The guy that will be most effected in Wilder and Fury not facing each other on May 18 is Dillian Whyte. The WBC had ordered Whyte and Breazeale to face each other for their interim heavyweight title. The only reason the WBC ordered Whyte to face Breazeale is because Wilder and Fury would be tied up facing each other in a rematch. Now that they’re not, it means Breazeale can fight for the WBC title against Wilder. The winner of the Whyte-Breazeale fight would be the new mandatory challenger for the winner of the Wilder vs. Fury II fight. But now that Fury and Wilder aren’t going to be fighting each other, then Breazeale, who is still the WBC mandatory challenger, will get his title shot against Wilder.
Where does Whyte go from here? He could in theory take on Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz, as a lot of boxing fans think he’s been avoiding the talented Cuban for the last couple of years. However, Whyte has shown zero interest in facing Ortiz, and that’s not likely to change now. Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn likes to compliment Whyte for being such a risk taker, but that’s not really the case. The guys that Whyte has been facing in his ‘risk taking’ fights are these fighters: Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne, Robert Helenius, Joseph Parker, Dereck Chisora, David Allen and Malcolm Tann. Whyte really hasn’t been fighting the best, has he? You can’t listen to what Hearn says about how brave Whyte is and how willing he is to fight anyone when he’s not fighting Luis Ortiz. The WBC ordered Whyte to fight Ortiz in a secondary eliminator, but Dillian chose to go after the Chisora and Big Daddy Browne fights. If Whyte isn’t willing to fight ‘King Kong’ Ortiz, then he should face Alexander Povetkin. That would prove something if Whyte were to face him. Whyte would be able to earn the respect from the boxing world if he were to step it up against Ortiz or Povetkin. Instead of Hearn just talking about how brave Whyte is, while he takes on flawed heavyweights like Tann, Allen, Chisora, Helenius, Parker and Browne, he could actually earn the praise that he’s being given by facing Povetkin or Ortiz. Now that would be a great interim fight for Whyte. Oleksander Usyk would also be a great fight for Whyte. He can fight, and it would give him his first real talented opponent since his loss to Joshua in 2015. You can’t count Chisora or Parker, as those two had already been beaten before. Parker was coming off of a loss to Joshua when he fought Whyte. Chisora had lost to Whyte and Kubrat Pulev recently. We already know about Chisora’s two losses to Tyson Fury, as well as his defeats at the hand of Pulev, Vitali Klitschko, David Haye, Robert Helenius and Agit Kabayel. Besides not taking a fight with Ortiz, Joshua, Whyte also chose not to fight Pulev. There’s a lot of guys that Whyte should have fought but didn’t. It would be nice to see Whyte finally step it up for the first time since the Joshua fight and face a solid guy like Ortiz, Usyk, Pulev or Povetkin.
Wilder scolded Fury on Twitter today after finding out that he’s going to let their marinate until the fall. Wilder said this about Fury: “You sorry mutha—a. We knew you only said this because you knew you wasn’t fighting me next…you requested a warm-up fight first 😂😂😂 I don’t blame you though. I probably would too if I saw my brains splashed all over the canvas. #Timberrr #Bih #RunHoeRun #NoSmokeWanted.”,