By Allan Fox: Deontay Wilder has started negotiations for a fight against former IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin for his next fight. The fight against Martin (28-2-1, 25 KOs) is the backup plan for former WBC champion ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) is he’s unable to get his contractual trilogy match against Tyson Fury.
Wilder’s co-manager Shelly Finkel told Sports Illustrated that they’re taking their case against the 32-year-old Fury to arbitration after the mediator told them that Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) won’t ever fight Deontay again. Team Wilder will be filing with an arbitrator in the next couple of weeks.
Fury is upset about some of the accusations Wilder had made following his seventh-round knockout loss to him in February 2020.
It’s unclear how quickly the arbitrator will be able to decide the case, and that’s the problem that Wilder has. He’s been out of the ring for 11 months since his loss to the ‘Gypsy King’ Fury in 2020, and he needs to get active.
WBC champion Fury is negotiating a two-fight deal with IBF/WBA/WBO champion Anthony Joshua. Even if the arbitrator rules that Fury must face Wilder, there’s a chance that he still won’t do it.
Fury could make $100 million from just the first fight with Joshua. So even if Fury is fined for failing to fight Wilder, he’ll be able to afford it.
If the arbitrator is slow in making a ruling, Fury and Joshua could complete their two fights in 2021 before a decision is finally made on Wilder’s case.
It could be futile at that point, especially if Fury loses both fights to Joshua. There would be no gain for Wilder in facing the defeated Fury in a fight that few people would want to see.
Charles Martin is just one of the names that are being kicked around by Wilder’s co-manager Finkel. There are several others., who he failed to mention.
“If we can’t get the Fury fight, Deontay needs to be active,” Finkel said to Sports Illutrated. “If it’s the worst-case scenario, we are going to be prepared to get him back in the ring.”
Fury doesn’t need the risk involved in fighting Wilder a third time, and you can argue that’s likely the main reason why the tall Brtish heavyweight is squirming out of the contract.
If Fury were to lose to Wilder, his two-fight deal with Joshua would suddenly become more of a domestic-level type fight. The main interest in the fight would be from British boxing fans rather than fans outside of the country if Fury were to lose to Wilder.
There’s not much to gain for Wilder in fighting the tall 6’5″ southpaw Martin, who has done little with his career since losing his IBF title to Joshua by a second-round knockout in 2016.
Martin had captured the vacant IBF title in his previous fight, defeating Vyacheslav Glazkov by a third-round injury stoppage in January 2016.
Since losing his IBF belt against Joshua, Martin has been beaten by Adam Kownacki by a 10 round in 2018. Martin’s wins in the last five years have come against these lower-level heavyweights:
- Gerald Washington
- Michael Marrone
- Byron Polley
- Gregory Corbin
- Daniel Martz
Martin made a lot of money in his fight against Joshua, and that may be a reason why we’ve not seen him step it up against world-level opposition consistently since that fight.
Charles did take a stiff test in Adam Kownacki in 2018, but it didn’t work out well to lose a 10-round decision.