By Charles Brun: WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman will bat for Deontay Wilder by saying that he “deserves” a third fight with Tyson Fury in 2021. Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) and his promoters maintain that the talented former WBC knockout artist Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) missed out on his chance for the third fight.
Sulaiman feels that Wilder should be given a third fight with Fury, who wants no part of fighting the dangerous ‘Bronze Bomber’ again.
Interestingly, Fury doesn’t seem to feel the need to pay Wilder back for his kindness that he showed to him. When Fury was needy, Wilder gave him a title shot in 2018 that he arguably didn’t deserve.
It was a voluntary defense for Wilder against Fury, who was coming off of two wins over low-level fighters Sefer Seferi and Francesco Pianeta after being out of the ring for almost three years.
After arguably being robbed of a knockout victory against Fury, Wilder gave Fury a rematch last February that he didn’t need to.
Sulaiman: Wilder deserves a third fight with Fury
Team Fury insists that the contract ran out on the third Wilder fight, so they’re moving on to 2021 towards a fight with Anthony Joshua. Through no fault of Wilder’s own, the fight with Fury was disrupted due to the pandemic and ESPN’s busy schedule during December.
Fury is currently in mediation with Wilder, and the outcome of that will be revealed soon.
“Wilder is a tremendous, important element. He was five years
champion of the WBC. Extremely loyal,” said Sulaiman to Sky Sports News. “He is a very dear fighter, a champion in the WBC and he deserves, of course,
another opportunity.“He gave Tyson Fury the opportunity and Tyson Fury beat him, knocked
him out, and, of course, Wilder is in the mix.“He deserves an opportunity and we will see how things evolve in the
coming year,” said Sulaiman.
Strangely enough, Fury’s loyal fan base is largely against him giving Wilder a third fight, as they want him to face Joshua now.
While those same fans were overjoyed when Wilder threw Fury a bone to give him an undeserved title shot in 2018 and an equally underserved rematch in 2020, they don’t feel he should return the favor to the Bronze Bomber.
Hearn says Wilder “missed the boat” for Fury trilogy
Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn is totally AGAINST Fury fighting Wilder again because he wants to make sure he makes it to the ring for his two-fight deal with AJ in 2021.
In other words, Hearn is focusing on business, not sports, when he talks of wanting Fury to dodge a third fight with Deontay.
“Wilder has missed the boat,” the nervous-sounding Hearn to Sky about him supposedly missing out on the Fury third fight. “He [Wilder] won’t get a shot at the world title until 2022 onwards because we are going to have two fights [with Fury] next year if we beat Pulev.”