By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury is off to an early start in trying to drum up interest in the third fight with former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder for November or December. Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) took to social media on Thursday and posted a picture of him dropping Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) with the caption “TIMBER.”
Fury is in the position where he’s going to need to singlehandedly promote the trilogy match with Wilder because he’s probably not going to get much help from ‘The Bronze Bomber.’ Wilder isn’t saying anything about the rematch.
If Wilder wants the third fight with Fury to do well in terms of buys, he needs to start fighting back verbally. Even if all Wilder does is make excuses for his loss, it would help.
Shame is the hiding emotion, and some would argue that Wilder is showing classic signs of that with the low profile he’s been keeping since his loss to Fury last February. I don’t expect that to change during the build-up for the third fight.
Will fans be able to afford Fury-Wilder 3?
With the economies of the UK and the U.S in terrible shape due to the pandemic, Fury and Wilder will need to work extra hard to sell their trilogy clash for pay-per-view.
Unfortunately for Fury, he’s probably going to need to do all the hard work himself to peddle the fight on pay-per-view, as Wilder has been the invisible man since his seventh-round knockout loss to ‘The Gypsy King’ last February.
Timber………… @BronzeBomber pic.twitter.com/ebTzPUdmp1
— TYSON FURY (@Tyson_Fury) June 4, 2020
It’s going to be VERY hard for Fury to get boxing fans interested in ordering his third fight with Wilder given how their previous fight ended. The huge employment numbers make completely unable to sell the Fury-Wilder 3 fight.
It might be better for the organizers of the trilogy match to wait until the pandemic ends, and the economies of the U.S and UK are doing better before they schedule the third Fury vs. Wilder fight.
The final straw that will cripple the fight is Wilder’s avoidance. He’s now giving interviews, and he’s not speaking up in public about how he wants to avenge his loss. Wilder’s reaction to his loss by keeping a low profile will make it impossible for the third fight with Fury to bring in respectable pay-per-view numbers.
Fury will look like a bully if Wilder doesn’t come out and start talking back to him. It’s OK for one fighter to do most of the trash-talking when it’s seen as a competitive match-up between two guys that have never fought before. But in the case of Fury-Wilder, they’ve already fought twice and Fury dominated. It’s going to be a lot harder for Fury not to be viewed as a bully now, especially if Wilder doesn’t attempt to defend himself verbally in the build-up to this fight.