Hearn predicting Fury vs. Wilder 3 won’t happen in December

By Boxing News - 10/04/2020 - Comments

By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn is already predicting that the trilogy fight between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder won’t happen in the remainder of 2020.

He says that with the constantly changing dates for the Fury vs. Wilder match and how former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay has gone quiet, it is unlikely the match takes place in 2020.

Hearn says he’s hoping Fury (30-0, 21 KOs) will face Wilder before the end of the year because he doesn’t want it to get in the way of the two-fight deal between ‘The Gypsy King’ Fury and IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in 2021.

But if Fury and Wilder are going to take advantage of the huge gate the fight can bring in potentially; then they need to delay the contest until early 2021. If you’ve been following the news about the surge of COVID-19 cases, you’ll know that things could be bleak in early 2021.

It’s quite possible that crowds still might not be allowed back in during the first half of next year in most states in the U.S and the UK.

Image: Hearn predicting Fury vs. Wilder 3 won't happen in December

Of course, they can always stage Fury-Wilder 3 in Texas, like we’re seeing with the Gervonta Davis vs. Leo Santa Cruz fight on October 31st. But would a fight between Fury and Wilder sell in Texas? Probably not.

Hearn predicting Fury vs. Wilder won’t happen in 2020

“It’s so weird what happened with Deontay Wilder because Fury might have completely done his name,” said Eddie Hearn to IFL TV. “We’ve not heard anything from him.

“I can’t still make it out. At the moment, the reality is that obviously, because of corona and everything, you can’t say it’s their fault. But none of that lot, Tyson included Frank [Warren] and Bob [Arum], they don’t know what they’re doing at the moment.

“Not as of day-to-day. I’m saying with Tyson Fury because Tyson Fury wants to fight this year, but Tyson has stated a contract, Deontay Wilder. Him coming out saying, ‘Oh, it’s happening on the 19th [of December]. No, it’s not happening on the 19th. It’s happening earlier now. Oh, it might be pushed back to next year.’

“You’ve got to remember that we’re in October. I’ll do three more shows. November 14th, November 21st, and December 12th to be announced, and they’ll be announced next week.

“So if Deontay Wilder doesn’t rematch Tyson Fury, Fury is saying, ‘I’m fine.’ It ain’t. It’s not easy, and you’ve really got to get yourself in order because otherwise, he won’t fight this year, and we really want him to fight this year,” Hearn said of Fury.

You’d like to think that Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) will go ahead and still take the fight with Fury this year, but it’s impossible to predict. But if Wilder chooses not to face Fury this year, who’s to say that he’ll take it in 2021 as well?

Unless Wilder is strategic about wanting to delay the contest with the unbeaten WBC champion Fury into next year so it can make money, he might not be interested in resisting that fight.

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Fury took care of Wilder in a decisive manner in stopping him in the 7th round in their rematch last February in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Deontay not showing eagerness for Fury clash

“He knows. I heard his comments the other day. ‘Oh yeah, I’ll fight Joshua in December,'” Hearn continued about Fury. “He knows we’ve agreed to fight Kubrat Pulev. His own promoter [Bob Arum of Top Rank] done the deal this week to fight.

“So, I want him to fight this year because we’ve got to make the fight immediately once that’s done. I just don’t know. I think they’re a little bit in limbo at the moment, and I’m not sure what’s going on.

“Where’s Deontay going, ‘Where’s my date? I want the rematch, and I want it this year. I’ve not heard anything, and it’s so strange. Maybe he doesn’t want the fight, but how can he not want to win his world title back? No,” said Hearn when asked if he thinks Fury vs. Wilder will happen this year.

“I don’t know. Who’s he going to fight?” said Hearn when asked if he thinks Fury will fight in the remainder of 2020.

“I hope so. We’ve been told all week that Fury-Wilder isn’t happening on December 19th. It’s happening before that now,” said Hearn.

The boxing world wants to see Tyson Fury and Joshua fight twice next year, but maybe they still can even if the Fury-Wilder 3 contest is postponed until 2021.

If Fury jumps back into training camp after facing Wilder in February or March 2021, he can face Joshua in July for the first fight and December.

Image: Hearn predicting Fury vs. Wilder 3 won't happen in December

Fury is always talking about how he likes to exercise and keep active. Well, if he squeezes in three fights in 2021, he won’t have time to get out of shape by sitting on the couch and eating delicacies by the handful.

Hearn to announce Joshua vs. Pulev next week

“So, Bob Arum and I did a deal to fight Kubrat Pulev, which will be announced next week,” Hearn said.”We’re fighting Kubrat Pulev, but there have been no talks.

“To be honest with you, with the state of the world and the lack of money for that fight [Fury vs. Wilder III], I don’t see it happening in December. But in the last three or four days, we’ve done our deal to fight Kubrat Pulev, and we’ll announce it next week.

“It’s going to happen in the UK like always. There are some discussions for it to take place outside of the UK, but our plan is the worst-case scenario with no crowds in the UK. he fights going ahead wherever it happens on December 12th.

“I have to think that we can get people in there by December 12th. It’s getting grim. But there are a lot of sports saying that you’ve got to let fans back in. So we’ll see where boxing gets into,” said Eddie.

Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs) and Hearn are taking a big risk in going ahead with the title defense against IBF mandatory Kubrat Pulev (28-1, 14 KOs) on December 12th. AJ doesn’t have to take this fight if he doesn’t want to.

The smart move on Joshua’s part would be for him to follow Fury’s advice and vacate the IBF and WBO titles to avoid defending against mandatory challengers Pulev, 39, and Oleksandr Usyk.

Image: Hearn predicting Fury vs. Wilder 3 won't happen in December

The boxing public isn’t interested in seeing Joshua face either of those two mandatory challengers, as their interest is on watching Joshua-Fury.  If Joshua had more ability, it wouldn’t be a huge risk for him to fight Pulev and Usyk because he could be counted on to win those matches.

Hearn doesn’t care that Wilder split with Breland

“I don’t care really,” said Hearn when asked about the news of Wilder splitting with his trainer Mark Breland. “It’s none of my business, and it’s absolutely irrelevant what I think.

“Mark Breland is a very good trainer. He was actually one of my favorite fighters to watch, but maybe it don’t work for him. I don’t know. I think once you publically character assassinate someone like he did with Mark Breland, there’s no way back anyway.

“Maybe Mark Breland turned around and went, ‘I don’t want to be involved with him anymore.’ I’d just like to hear something,” said Hearn.

It could help Wilder changing out Breland for another trainer, as he’s not been showing signs of improvement in the last six years. When a fighter is no longer getting better, it’s time to shake things up by switching coaches.

But in Wilder’s case, he needs to change out the whole training team, not just Breland. If Wilder’s only reason for splitting with Breland is because he stopped the Fury fight in the 7th round earlier this year on February 22, that’s a shallow move.

Wilder was ineffective the entire fight with Fury, and it was a waste to keep him out there round after round, soaking up punishment. At 231 lb, Wider looked too light compared to the 270+ pound Fury, and punches lacked the power that we’d seen from him in the past.

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Warren wants to get rid of the Wilder fight

“If we can’t get the Wilder fight, we have got to look at something else, work between us and work with everyone concerned,” said promoter Frank Warren to BT Sport Boxing. “Next year if we get the crowds back, there are some massive fights.

We have got to get rid of this Wilder fight, it was supposed to take place in June or July and at the moment it doesn’t look like it will take place this year.

“Unless Bob Arum pulls a rabbit out the hat and puts it on in the States, but I think he will struggle to do that because they are in the same boat as us with no crowds.

“So somehow we got to get him [Tyson Fury] out, get our thinking caps on and get our hands in someone’s pockets and get it on,” said Warren.

As much money as the Fury vs. Wilder 3 match will bring in; it’s hard to understand wanting to get “rid” of the fight. Apart from Fury fighting Joshua, the next biggest fight for the Gypsy King is Wilder.

Unless Joshua is available, Fury doesn’t have any other big fights besides Wilder out there for him. He’s not going to make the kind of money he’s made against Wilder facing Daniel Dubois, Joe Joyce, Alexander Povetkin, or Dillian Whyte.

Wilder is a fight that Fury should be looking forward to and thinking about a future fourth match between them.