By Max Seitelman: A new potential country for the Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder trilogy fight is in Macau, China, for November or December, according to Top Rank promoter Bob Arum. He states that investors willing to put up the money to stage the match there.
Also in play for the fight is the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Australia.
Wilder and Fury were supposed to meet last July for their third fight, but the pandemic forced it to be postponed. They then pushed the battle to October, but that didn’t work either.
With Wilder having a bicep injury that requires surgery, it’s coin toss whether he’ll be ready by November or December to face Fury. If Wilder can’t make it, you can count on Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn to push to have WBC mandatory Dillian Whyte step in as Fury’s opponent.
Arum has a big decision to make
The location that Arum would prefer WBC heavyweight champion Fury (30-0-1, 21 K.O.s) meet Wilder (42-1-1, 41 K.O.s) is in Las Vegas, but that location would likely be contingent on a large crowd being present. But with the fight being pushed to November or December, there’s a good chance that large groups will be allowed back in.
The bad news is there’s no way of knowing if the fans would have the means to pay for tickets for a third Wilder vs. Fury fight. What Arum doesn’t want is to be giving away complimentary tickets by the thousands to fans to try to fill an empty stadium up at the last second. Arum thinks that a crowd of 20,000 to 30,000 is possible for the fight.
Arum says there are investors in Macau that can come up with the money to have the Fury-Wilder III trilogy match take there.
“Maybe Macau, which needs to attract customers and has tremendous protocols,” said Arum to Sky Sports Boxing on Fury vs. Wilder. “They have had, for months now. We’ve talked to them.”
Arum has staged some of Manny Pacquiao and Vasily Lomachenko’s fights in Macao in the past. So this isn’t a new thing for the Top Rank promoter. If the money is as good or better than what the Fury and Wilder fight can haul in for Las Vegas, then it could happen.
Bob counting on full attendance
There’s risk involved in Arum staging the Fury-Wilder trilogy match in Las Vegas, though, because there are no guarantees that the fight will bring in the large crowd that Arum needs for it to be worthwhile staging there.
“Maybe we can do it with full attendance at the new stadium in Vegas of the Raiders,” Arum said. “Maybe we could do it with 20,000 or 30,000 people.” be hard to resist.”
I won’t want to see the look on Arum’s face if the Allegiant Stadium is near empty on the night of the Wilder vs. Fury 3 fight in November or December. Arum will have guessed wrong by betting on a large crowd showing up for the contest.
The Fury vs. Wilder 2 rematch pulled in a record gate of $16,916,440, which broke the 21-year record for a heavyweight match between Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield in 1999. That was a different time, though. The economy was doing better in the U.S. and U.K., and there wasn’t a pandemic scaring fans and making them think twice about attending mass gatherings.
Wilder needs to change his game
Deontay, 34, is going to need to make changes to his fighting style for him to have a shot at beating Fury. What Wilder has tried in the past in the first two matches with the 6’9″ Fury has failed to work, and most boxing fans believe he only has a puncher’s chance of winning.
It’s ridiculous to imagine Wilder beating Fury at his own game by out-boxing him over 12 rounds. That’s not going to work well for the Alabama native if he tries to fight a technical battle against Fury, and it’s doubtful that he’ll even attempt to do so.
It could be interesting, though. You’ve got to believe that Wilder will be putting everything he has in each punch he throws in the fight, and if he lands just one clean shot, Fury might go to sleep.
The element of surprise is now gone for Fury. He won’t catch Wilder off guard in the third fight if he uses the Kronk Gym aggressive style that he utilized in the second fight. Wilder will be expecting Fury to come right at him, throwing his looping shots to the back of his head.
“More dangerous than the last fight, for sure,” said Fury to Sky Sports about what he expects from Wilder in the third match. “Still a very dangerous opponent, still a very hungry man, who is coming in there to prove his worth.”
Deontay will be dangerous
There’s only one way Wilder can go, and that’s up from his last effort against Fury. Wilder was so bad in the rematch that it won’t take much from him to top his performance. Whether he’ll be good enough to win is another thing.
Wilder came into the rematch with Fury at 231 pounds, and that considerably more massive than the 212 pounds he weighed for the first fight in December 2018.
The extra weight didn’t help Wilder against the 273-pound Fury, who used his 42-pound weight advantage to pummel him. Fury knocked Wilder down with a right to the temple in the third round. Two rounds later, Fury dropped Wilder in the fifth with a body shot.
