Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder 3 in doubt for 2020

By Boxing News - 09/23/2020 - Comments

By Jeff Aronow: Tyson Fury’s promoter Frank Warren says he trilogy fight with former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder can’t take place behind closed doors without fans on December 19th. Warren says the Fury vs. Wilder third match is too big to give up the gate money, which is expected to be huge.

Warren says that they’re looking at taking the Fury vs. Wilder III match to a foreign country if they can find one interested in hosting it.

The government would pay a considerable site fee to host it. Unfortunately, given the situation with the global pandemic, this isn’t the most fantastic time to pick to try and find an outside country that is willing to put up the money to stage the fight.

Bad time to shop Fury-Wilder 3

It’s possible that there won’t be a foreign country willing to stage Fury and Wilder. Top Rank promoter Bob Arum wasn’t able to find a government interested in putting on the Manny Pacquiao vs. Terence Crawford fight that he was trying to put together. If Arum had no luck with that one, it wouldn’t be surprising if he fails to get a country to take the Fury vs. Wilder 3 contest.

Warren points out that the Fury-Wilder rematch last February was the “highest-grossing” to take place in Las Vegas, Nevada. With the money that the third fight can make from ticket sales, they’re not about to give up the revenue by staging the battle without an audience.

Image: Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder 3 in doubt for 2020

“We’re all working as a team to source date and a venue. Hopefully, they’ll allow crowds in sooner or later,” said Fury to Good Morning Britain. “We’re all working towards that goal at the moment. I’m very optimistic that I’ll fight this year.

“No, not a fight of that magnitude,” said promoter Frank Warren when asked if Fury vs. Deontay Wilder can take place without fans. “Tyson and Deontay Wilder’s last fight was the highest-grossing fight ever to take place in Las Vegas.

“We can’t lose that gate money; it’s a huge amount of money. So we do need the live gate. So we’re all [looking] to come up with some scenario where there’s a huge site fee from territory to take it, and use it to promote their country. We’re looking at those situations,” said Warren.

Fury not eager to fight without fans

“Not really,” said Fury when asked if he could imagine fighting behind closed doors. “As Frank was saying about fighters being at home and away. I do box at home because Las Vegas is the new home of the Gypsy King,” said Fury.

Fury is stuck between a rock and a hard place with him still needing to get the trilogy bout against Wilder (42-1-1 41 KOs) out of the way. Ideally, Fury needs to get the Wilder match out of the way before 2021, as he’s scheduled to face IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua, twice.

Image: Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder 3 in doubt for 2020

If Fury is still trying to get the Wilder contest done in the first half of next year, then that’s going to jeopardize his ability to face AJ to times. It’ll still be possible for Fury to squeeze in both Joshua fights, but not if his trilogy match against Wilder is a grueling affair in which he takes a lot of punishment to the head.

$16 million gate for Wilder-Fury 2 fight

Fury vs. Wilder II brought a gate of $16,916,440, which broke the record for a heavyweight match set by the Lennox Lewis vs. Evander Holyfield II in November 1999. Wilder was knocked out in the 7th round after being dropped in rounds three and five.

In the 7th, Wilder was no longer fighting back while stuck on the ropes, taking punishment. His cornerman Mark Breland threw in the towel to protect his well-beaten fighter.

In the aftermath, there were excuses made by Wilder about his legs being weakened by the heavy ring-walk outfit that he’d worn. We also hurt comments about Fury hitting Wilder with rabbit punches, and then later, there was a glove conspiracy.

Most recently, it was learned that Wilder fought with an injured bicep. One of Wilder’s sparring partners, Junior Fa, said that he had hurt his bicep several weeks before the fight.