Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder III possible for Macau, China

By Boxing News - 05/09/2020 - Comments

By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury’s promoter Bob Arum is interested in staging his trilogy fight against Deontay Wilder in Macau, China. The Top Rank promoter Arum says Macau would be an option due to spectators not being allowed to attend live events in the United States.

In the past, Arum staged two of superstar Manny Pacquiao’s fights in Macau, China. This isn’t new for Arum to take fights over to that country.

If Arum chooses to stage the Fury-Wilder 3 fight in China, it could prove to be a highly unpopular move with boxing fans. It would cost a lot for fans to travel to China to see Fury defend his WBC heavyweight title against Wilder (42-1-1, 41 K.O.s).

Further, with the pandemic still a problem, a lot of U.K. and U.S. fans might not be willing to travel to China to watch the fight. However, for Arum to stage the Fury vs. Wilder fight in Macau, the site would likely be lucrative enough for the poor ticket sales to be a non-factor.

Image: Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder III possible for Macau, China

Arum interested in Macau, China for Fury-Wilder 3

“With a big Fury fight with Wilder, it appears that the U.S. will not allow spectators with live sports events this year, I am looking, Top Rank is looking, for areas that we are most familiar as far as doing those events,” said Arum to IFL TV.

“In Asia, particularly in Macau [China], we’ve had a track record of doing very successful events in Macau. So we’re handling that as aspect in Macau. In other words, everybody is acting cooperatively, and we’re acting on our area of expertise,” said Arum.

If Arum insists on staging the third Wilder vs. Fury fight in China, he’s going to be asking for trouble from U.K. and U.S. fans. If they were doing well financially and if they’d never seen Fury vs. Wilder before, then maybe it would be a good idea to stage the fight in China. Unfortunately, fans aren’t doing well economically, and they HAVE seen Fury and Wilder fight twice already.

At this point, Macau, China is just an idea that Arum is kicking around, and it’s not official that Fury vs. Wilder 3 will end up taking place there. Knowing Arum, he’s got other options for where he would like to stage the fight. But with the fans not being allowed to attend sporting events in the States and the U.K., Arum will have to find a location to stage the Fury-Wilder III fight outside of those two countries.

Will fans purchase Fury-Wilder 3 on PPV?

The Middle East is another option for the fight. What could be more of an issue that the venue for the Fury vs. Wilder trilogy match is the pay-per-view? A lot of boxing fans in the U.S. are cool to the idea of paying to see Fury and Wilder fight for the third time. They’ve already fought one time too many, and people don’t want to waste their time and money seeing a needless third match.

As far as the fans are concerned, Fury has proven that he’s the better fighter of the two, and they don’t want to see them fight again. If the Fury-Wilder fight were to be shown on regular FOX or ESPN, then it wouldn’t be such a big deal, but that’s not going to be the case.

For fans that want to see the two big heavyweights fight again, they need to pay to see them on pay per view. Without Wilder taking a tune-up fight to show that he’s come back stronger, it’s pointless to see him taking on Fury again because he has very little chance of winning the battle at this point.

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