By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury said earlier today that he will definitely be fighting on December 5th against an opponent still to be determined in London, UK. Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) has decided already not to wait on a trilogy match against Deontay Wilder in January.
Fury’s December 5th fight’s potential opponents are a couple of pedestrian-level heavyweights in Agit Kabayel and Carlos Takam. They’re both with Top Rank and not any threat to beating Fury. It’s important that Fury not lose right now with him on the doorstep to a unification match against Anthony Joshua.
Michael Hunter has offered to take on Fury, but he appears to be under consideration for obvious reasons. Hunter is someone that could give Fury a tough fight and possibly beat him. Hence, he’s not likely to be selected by Team Fury.
Fury announces he’s fighting on December 5th
“I’d just like to announce I’m definitely fighting December the 5th in London. Opponent to be announced very, very soon,” Fury said on social media on Saturday.
“Just working on some opponents. Let you all know who it’s going to be shortly.”
Well, if Fury’s December 5th opponent is going to be a middle of the road type of heavyweights like Kabayel or 39-year-old Takam, it might be better for Top Rank to wait until the week of the fight to announce it. At least if they do that, Fury won’t be dumped daily for the next two months.
If you’re going to give Fury’s loyal boxing fans bad news, it’s best if they wait until just a few days before the December 5th date before springing it on them. I mean, it’s not as if they need to promote the Fury fight so that they can purchase tickets.
Fury’s fight will be behind closed doors unless, by a small miracle, the UK government allows fans back in by December. The numbers of positive cases for COVID 19 aren’t dropping. In fact, they’re going up, and that’s not the news that the UK government would need for them to be allowing crowds back into sporting events.
Limited options for Fury
If Fury were facing a talented heavyweight like Wilder, there would be a chance of a foreign country stepping forward to host his fight on December 5th in front of a live crowd.
Unfortunately, if Fury faces Kabayel or Takam, there will probably be any foreign countries wanting to host a mismatch like that. A fight of that nature would be a disaster.
The 32-year-old Fury will be making his first defense of his WBC heavyweight title that he won last February with a seventh-round knockout win over Wilder in Las Vegas. That was the second fight between the two heavyweights.
In their first match in 2018, Fury dodged a bullet when he was knocked unconscious by Wilder in the 12th round. The referee chose to give Fury a count while he lay there knocked out, something you don’t see too often nowadays with safety paramount in boxing.