By Tim Royner: Tyson Fury’s promoter Todd Duboef of Top Rank says they’ve heard nothing from former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder about him wanting to step aside for the Fury vs. Anthony Joshua mega-bout to take place.
So accordingly, Fury will need to stick to his contract obligations in facing Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) in a trilogy match in the fall, possibly.
Top Rank negotiating Fury-Wilder 3
Duboef is working on putting together the trilogy with Wilder’s management. They haven’t brought up Wilder stepping aside for the Joshua vs. Fury fight.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has hoped that Wilder would agree to a step aside deal that would permit Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs) to face the unbeaten WBC champ Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) at the end of the year.
Unfortunately for Joshua and Hearn, Wilder hasn’t contacted Top Rank to let them know that he would be agreeable to stepping aside.
Duboef admits that with the situation that’s happening right now in the world, it’s a wrong time to count on a fight between Joshua and Fury taking place. Ideally, Duboef thinks there would a chance of finding a way to make the Joshua-Fury fight happen in 2020, but with the sickness that is going on worldwide, he doesn’t see it as possible.
“That fight breaking up as a result of [Joshua vs. Fury] fight? I have not been privy to any conversations about that,” said Duboef to skysports.com. “I have not heard that they are willing to step aside. Nobody has communicated that.”
Wilder and Fury were supposed to have met for the third match by July, but the illness that is spreading has things up in the air. There still isn’t a concrete date for the third Fury vs. Wilder fight. Although October 3 is the rumored date, that might not be when the contest takes place.
Wilder met with defeat in losing to Fury by a crushing 7th round knockout last February in Las Vegas. The battle was a total slaughter with Fury hurting Wilder immediately at the start of the match, and then dropping him twice before it was stopped in round 7.
Fury and Joshua have contractual obligations
If Fury had it his way, he would move on to face another opponent, but the rematch clause in their contract enables Wilder to meet him again.
Joshua is set to defend against his IBF mandatory Kubrat Pulev at a still to be determined date. They were scheduled to fight on June 20. AJ can’t get out of his fight with Pulev, seeing that he’s his IBF mandatory.
If Joshua wants to vacate the IBF title, he can, and his Pulev problems will go away. However, Joshua’s focus is on unifying the heavyweight division, and he doesn’t want to give up any of his hard-earned titles.
The location of the eventual Joshua vs. Fury fight will depend on whether the pandemic is over, and which parts of the world are safe to fight. Hearn will likely want to stage the match in the UK, but we’ll have to see if it’s safe to do so.
The projections of a vaccine not being available to the public until Q3 or Q4 in 2021, present a dismal picture for the Joshua vs. Fury fight as well as all boxing.
