Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder 3 being moved to February 2021

By Boxing News - 08/07/2020 - Comments

By Charles Brun: Bob Arum is talking about wanting to move the trilogy match between WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder to early February if they’re unable to stage the fight in front of fans on December 19th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It’s not looking good at all about boxing fans being allowed to attend sporting events in huge numbers by December, which means we’re likely to see Fury-Wilder III moved to the first week of February.

Arum wants Fury vs. Wilder 3 to take place in front of fans

Fury and Wilder want to fight in front of a full crowd, but the situation is bleak right now. You can expect it to remain that way.

The reports on the vaccine for the pandemic are quite bad.  That’s not good for Tyson and former WBC heavyweight champion 6’7″ Deontay. It appears that even if it does come available to the world population by December or January, many people will refuse to take it out of safety concerns over the mad rush to produce it. As such, it’s unlikely the crowds will be allowed back in by February 2021.

Arum will need to make a decision soon on how long he’s willing to wait for the crowds to be allowed back in. If February comes around and fans still aren’t allowed back into boxing events, does Arum give a new date of June 2021?  What happens if that date doesn’t work either?

Top Rank promoter Arum told @SiriusXMBoxing that he’d stage the Fury (30-0-1, 21 K.O.s) vs. Wilder (42-1-1, 41 K.O.s) third contest in another country. It won’t be in the U.S. or U.K.

Image: Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder 3 being moved to February 2021

What this means is WBC mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte is going to need to wait a little longer before he gets his title shot against the winner of the Fury and Wilder match.

If Whyte pushes the issue hard, look for the Fury to vacate the WBC title and leave Dillian stuck with having to battle #3 WBC Luis Ortiz for the vacant belt.

How will Whyte react?

Just yesterday, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman affirmed that Dillian (27-1, 18 KOs) will be getting his title shot against the Fury vs. Wilder III winner by February 2021. I guess Sulaiman should have checked with Arum, seeing that he has other ideas for Fury.

Whyte earned the WBC mandatory spot last July in beating Oscar Rivas by a 12 round decision in a close fight. However, Whyte feels that he should have been a title shot long before that due to his #1 ranking with the WBC, which he feels gives him the right for a title shot. It doesn’t work that way in boxing. Number one rankings mean zilch.

The only thing that matters is if a fighter is a mandatory challenger or not, and Whyte took his sweet time about taking part in the WBC’s title eliminator. If he’d agreed to fight Ortiz in 2018 when the WBC ordered that fight, Whyte would have already been his title shot.

But then again, Dillian might have lost to Ortiz, so perhaps he was better off choosing not to take that fight.

Given Whyte’s past behaviors in relating to Ortiz, he’ll probably choose not to go after the vacant WBC title. Dillian already passed up a fight against Ortiz in 2018 when the World Boxing Council ordered the two to fight in a title eliminator.

Giving up the WBC title is the smartest move for Fury, and it’s surprising he hasn’t done that already. Boxing fans won’t care if Fury has the WBC belt in his possession for the Wilder fight, as they already know who these guys are. They don’t need the WBC trinket title to validate their fight to give it more meaning in the eyes of the casual boxing fans.

Vacating WBC title is the best option for Fury

What Fury and Top Rank should be doing is focusing on his Ring Magazine and lineal titles if they want validation from the fans to show his credibility with them. The WBC belt is needless, and it’s not going to work for Fury to give up the Wilder fight to face Whyte in February in a fight that the American boxing fans have no interest in seeing.

Image: Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder 3 being moved to February 2021

Fury should have gotten a clue and binned the WBC belt a long time ago when Whyte started bellyaching nonstop about his title shot and the so-called 1000+ days he’s been pining away for his title shot.

Once Fury vacates the WBC title, he can ignore Whyte permanently and focus on taking the quality fights without him, Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn and the sanctioning body leaning on him. Whyte can fight Luis Ortiz for the WBC title if he’s up to the challenge of fighting him this time.