By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder III is still on for December, according to Deontay’s manager Shelly Finkel. Earlier on Saturday, a number of British boxing sites got carried away, saying that the Fury vs. Wilder 3 fight was off due to the rematch contract has expired. However, that glimmer of hope that of Wilder missing a deadline has burst, as he still is taking the fight.
Unfortunately, that turned out to be fake news, and the Fury-Wilder 3 contest is still being planned for December. It would be nice for a lot of fans if Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KO) did miss the exploration date, but it wouldn’t change anything.
Wilder wants his WBC belt back, and he’s not going to give up on the fight with Fury. He fought Fury with an injury last February with his main weapon, his right hand, out of commission due to a bicep problem.
IBF/WBA/WBC heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua would still be defending his titles against his IBF mandatory Kubrat Pulev on December 12th. So for the eager fans that think that they’d get a chance to see Fury and Joshua in December, that wouldn’t happen even if Wilder missed the operation date for the trilogy match.
Fury vs. Wilder 3 still happening in December
Joshua won’t be free until the early part of 2021 to fight Fury anyway, so it doesn’t pay off for him to give up on the trilogy match with Wilder. It’s not as if Joshua is going to vacate his IBF title bypass his mandatory obligations to face 39-year-old Pulev (28-1, 14 KOs). Joshua wants to keep his titles.
It’s better for Joshua to take the low-level fight against Pulev first without fans, and then look to face Fury in front of a live crowd potentially in the first quarter of 2021, depending on if the UK government gives the green light to fans returning by that point.
Steve Kim of ESPN is reporting that the Fury (30-01, 21 KOs) is still facing Wilder in December in their planned third contest.
The obvious question is why would Fury want to walk away from the third fight with Wilder, even if the rematch clause had expired? For the casual boxing fans that don’t realize it, there’s a lot of money that Fury will make fighting Wilder again.
“Recovery [is] going well, I’m in therapy, I ended up injuring it during my last fight, somewhere up in there,” Deontay said to PBC Podcast.
“But everything is going great with it. That’s another thing, I’m focusing on recovery, getting myself back to full health.’
“Oh yeah, I can’t work out now. Once I get healed with my arm I’m looking forward to just working out, being able to do the things I love to do,” said Wilder.
“Right now I’m just sitting back and getting taken care of, all meals being prepared for me, a lot of catering now between my fiancee and all the kids around me. It’s nothing we can complain of in this moment in time.”
Wilder = a big payday for Fury
Fury’s not going to get that kind of money fighting one of the regular Joe contenders in the top 15. Fury wants the third fight with Wilder because he can make a lot of money, and he’s not going to disappear if the rematch clause expires.
He’s going to stick it out because it’s the next best payday he can get behind a fight against Anthony Joshua.
Wilder hasn’t bee able to take the fight with Fury in the last six months before he’s been recovering from bicep surgery that he suffered in his rematch with him last February.
As big as the Fury vs. Wilder fight is, it wouldn’t have made sense for the two to have faced each other yet because they wouldn’t have been able to stage the contest in front of a live crowd because of the COVID 19 situation.
Their fight earlier this year in February brought in over $16 million at the gate at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. As much as Fury’s fans are anxious to get the Wilder fight over with, you have to look at it from a business perspective.
If they had taken the fight to accommodate the fans, then they’d have lost a boatful of money in the process. Moreover, Wilder would be fighting with one arm again like he did last February due to his bicep injury still not having healed.
That obviously would be good for Fury and his fans, but it wouldn’t be ideal for Wilder. Like last February’s rematch outcome, it didn’t give a clear view of who the better fighter was because Wilder was injured during that fight.
Deontay’s bicep needs more time
He reportedly suffered the right bicep injury in the last weeks of training camp, according to one of his sparring partners Junior Fa. Wilder was basically fighting Fury with just his left hand and getting clubbed in the back of the head by him throughout the fight.
According to Shelly Finkel, Fury-Wilder III is still happening in December… #boxing
— Steve Kim (@StevESPNKim) October 10, 2020
Fury’s fans are going to have to put a lid on and calm down, and realize it’s going to take some time before Wilder is ready is healed up from his surgery. It would be a good idea for fans to realize and try not to get carried away each time they hear crazy rumors. It’s not going to help anyway.
As I said, Joshua is tied up with Pulev for December, so there’s no chance that AJ will be facing Fury in that month anyway. Even if Wilder did miss the rematch clause deadline and Fury chose to walk away from the pot of gold he’ll make for that third contest, he’s not going to face Joshua anyway.
That’s the part that Fury’s eager beaver fans need to understand. He’s not going to get the chance to fight Joshua until at least April 2021 at the earliest and possibly not until June.
I get the impression that Joshua and his wily promoter Eddie Hearn aren’t in a big hurry to face Fury in 2020. They stand to gain more by waiting until 2021, both in terms of crowds coming back and with the UK and U.S economy being in better shape.