By Dean Berman: Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury have already signed for a trilogy fight between them for next year, says Top Rank Boxing promoter Bob Arum. He says the purse split for the winner of the Wilder vs. Fury trilogy will get 60% of the purse, and the loser 40%.
Fury gets 50-50 purse split for Wilder rematch on February 22
For the upcoming second Wilder-Fury 2 fight on February 22 next year, the purse split down the middle at 50-50. Fury getting 50 percent of the pot for the Wilder rematch is a great deal. It’s no wonder Arum chose to have Fury sign for a third fight with Wilder. If Fury can win a decision, he stands to make a lot of money.
It’s a great deal for Fury (28-0-1, 20 KOs), who is getting parity with Wilder a a challenger. Although Fury has been touting himself as the “lineal heavyweight champion,” no one is giving any weight to that self title. For all intents and purposes, Fury will be a belt-less challenger when he faces Wilder in the rematch in February.
Arum not pleased with Fury vs. Wallin fight
“Of course he [Fury] has to [beat Wallin on Saturday]. We’re doing this to get to the Wilder fight,” said Arum to BT Sport about Fury’s fight against Otto Wallin. “If I had my druthers, I’d rather do the Wilder rematch this year, and not take the risk with this big Swede. But the other side was obligated to do one more fight for Wilder against [Luis] Ortiz. So we had to punt the Wilder vs. Fury fight over to next February.
I’m not very pleased about this fight. As you said, not many people know about Wallin. But he’s a big Swede, and he’s got a good punch. It’s boxing; anything can happen. Call Eddie Hearn. He wanted a tomato can to fight [Anthony] Joshua, who had a big fight scheduled. So he picked a big, fat tomato can. The Mexican kid Andy Ruiz, who he didn’t realize, because Eddie [Hearn] doesn’t know nothing about boxing. He had fast hands, and was a courageous guy that could take a punch. He not only beat Joshua, but he knocked him silly,” said Arum.
Arum is comparing the 6’6″ Otto Wallin with Andy Ruiz Jr. in an attempt to show that anything is possible in Saturday’s Fury-Wallin fight. Wallin is not nearly as talented as Ruiz Jr., and the chances are pretty much zero that he’s going to pull off the upset to beat the undefeated Fury (28-0-1, 20 KOs) this Saturday night in Las Vegas. Ruiz (33-1, 22 KOs) had fast hands, and an excellent amateur background going for him when he fought Anthony Joshua on June 1. Wallin had a good amateur background as well in his native Sweden, but his hand speed is slow, and his power isn’t on the level of Ruiz Jr. or some of the top contenders in the division.
Arum reveals Wilder vs. Fury trilogy purse split
“It’s a signed deal,” said Arum about a rematch between Wilder and Fury for February. “Not only is it a signed deal for a second fight between the two best heavyweights in the world, the winner of the fight for a third fight, which is already signed, gets 60 percent of everything and the loser 40 percent. Right now, it’s signed for the second fight. Each side gets 50 percent. I would prefer it take place in Las Vegas,” said Arum about the February 22 rematch between Wilder and Fury,” said Arum.
The winner getting 60% of the pot for the Wilder-Fury rematch is a big risk on Arum’s part in agreeing to that deal. Wilder already knows how to get to Fury’s chin, as he figured him out in the championship rounds in their fight last December. If Wilder knocks Fury out in their rematch next February, it’s safe to say that Arum won’t any part of a third fight for the Gypsy King. The writing will be on the wall after the rematch in February that Fury’s chin can’t handle Wilder’s right hand blasts.
Wilder has put on more size, and he’s punching like never before. Deontay would be the first to admit that he made a mistake in going into the first Fury fight weighing just 212 pounds. That weight might have been fine for a heavyweight champion in the early 1970s. A young George Foreman weighed only 217 pounds when he knocked out WBA/WBC heavyweight champion Joe Frazier in round 2 in 1973. But heavyweights have gotten bigger, and it’s impossible for a champion to do well in weighing 212 pounds like Wilder did when he fought Fury the first time around.
Wilder-Fury 2 could do 2 million buys
“Wilder might object to that, because Tyson Fury has become the face of Las Vegas,’ said Arum. “It’s his town. We’ve been talking to the MGM about the dates and so forth. The MGM is available for the 22nd of February. There’s nothing wrong with Britain, but you have to understand. The biggest source of revenue comes from pay-per-view. People are now talking about this next fight [between Wilder and Fury] coming up will do 2 million homes in the United States, paying into the promotion $40 dollars, over and above what the providers take. So that’s $80 million from just the pay-per-view plus the closed circuit.
Now if you move it to England, the problem becomes the fight goes on in the afternoon, and you can’t do anywhere’s like that number in pay-per-view. If the fight is in the United States it’s in an odd hour early in the morning in the UK. But history has shown if the fight is big enough, like Mayweather-Pacquiao, they’ll [UK boxing fans] will get up and watch it,” said Arum.
Wilder vs. Fury brought in 350,000 PPV buys for their fight last December on Showtime. Since Fury has done little to increase his popularity in the United States in terms of facing quality opposition, it’s unlikely that Arum’s 2 million PPV buys can happen for the rematch. With the poor quality opponents that Top Rank has been digging up for Fury to fight, the PPV numbers might be even lower for a Wilder-Fury rematch. That’s a prediction that has a great chance of becoming reality that Arum’s talk of it doing 2 million buys.
Joshua shouldn’t be taking immediate rematch with Ruiz says Arum
“Listen, based on history, when a fighter goes into a fight as a big favorite like Joshua, and not only gets beat, but gets embarrassed by his opponent, you get him a couple of other fights before you put him back in the ring,” said Arum when asked whether he would let Anthony Joshua fight Andy Ruiz Jr. in an immediate rematch. “The likely result of this rematch is Ruiz does the same thing to him. I don’t know anything that changes that dynamic. unlike a fight that goes to the scorecards where a fighter can make a particular adjustment, he can change the result or a fight where it’s very competitive, and there’s a late stoppage.
That can also change with a fighter changing his strategy [in the rematch]. But here, he [Joshua] just got steamrolled by fat Andy Ruiz, and he had no answer for. And unless he’s taught by fighting other competitors not quite as good as Andy, how to deal with a little guy that can take a punch, and can get down into him, the same thing is going to happen. I don’t care how many muscles Joshua puts on his body.
The whole world has been telling Hearn and Joshua not to take the immediate rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr., but they’re not listening. They believe they can win, and it’s a bold risk that could pay off. If it doesn’t, then Hearn will be skewered by the boxing world for letting AJ stumble into the rematch without forewarned by him.