By Charles Brun: Promoter Bob Arum says the arbitrator for the Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder case is expected to decide by May, and he says at worst, there could be a “claim for damages” the Bronze Bombers part. But Arum doesn’t see the Anthony Joshua vs. Fury fight being stopped from happening in June or whenever the match gets made.
It’s unknown how much money Fury might end up paying Wilder if he’s awarded damages for not getting his contractual rematch. Could it be millions? If so, Fury might have been better off fighting Wilder again rather than choosing to move on.
With Fury and his many boxing fans believing Wilder was such an easy fight for him, it’s odd that he would choose not to fight him again. It makes no sense.
Not only would Fury make massive money in the third fight with Wilder, but it would also make his two fights with Joshua bigger in theory.
Why avoid Wilder if there was so much to gain in fighting him? That’s something that the only Fury knows. He’s got to have a reason for why he chose to walk away from his contractual rematch with the American.
Either way that you look at it, Fury could lose a lot of money by not fighting Wilder. If Fury had taken the fight with Wilder, the payday would have been HUGE. It’s hard to fathom how much money Fury would have made in the third fight with Deontay.
“That is in arbitration, and the arbitrator will decide,” said Bob Arum to Barbershop Conversations when asked about what’s happening with Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder.
“No, really and truly, nobody anticipates that there’ll be an injunction. At worst, there might be a claim for damages. I think it was scheduled that we’d finally get a determination sometime in May. I can’t go into that,” said Arum when asked what options there are for Anthony Joshua and Fury.
Fury literally walked away from a fight that would have likely paid him tens of millions against Wilder. It’ll be worse for Fury if he has to pay damages to Wilder for not fighting him again.
That’s a double whammy. Fury might as well have stuck it out with the Wilder fight and hoped for the best. If Fury is really as good as he thinks he is, he should have no problems beating Wilder in the trilogy.
Of course, if Fury’s win last year over Deontay was a fluke thing, he could get knocked out. There are already many boxing fans who believe that Fury should have been stopped in his first fight with Wilder in 2018.
That was the famous fight in which the referee gave a count to Fury while he laid on the canvas out cold in the 12th. That was strange looking for many fans to see a referee giving a count to a knocked-out fighter. You definitely don’t see that too often anymore.
Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) was under contract to give former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) a rematch last year after beating him by a seventh-round knockout in February 2020.
For whatever reason, the fight didn’t get made last year, and now Fury has chosen to move on rather than give Wilder the rematch. Obviously, it would have been better for Fury to stick it out and fight Wilder again, but you can understand why he might have viewed the Joshua match as hard to resist.
There would have been a massive risk for Fury in the third fight with Wilder, and if ‘The Gypsy King’ were to lose, his money fight against AJ would have gone down the train.
“Eddie Hearn has a loose, and he speaks, whatever, whatever, but under our contract between Joshua and Fury and the various promoters, we’re embargoed from going into who we’re talking to and where the fight will be held until we arrive at a determination and there can be a joint announcement. I know that Eddie has been violating that, but I’m not going to.
“Definitely,” said Arum when asked if it’s possible for Fury to fight twice in 2021. “Why wouldn’t I give him two fights this year? You have to understand all of these guys have not been as active as they normally would be because of the pandemic. Now it would be criminal not to have Fury fight twice this year. If he fights in June, he can fight in November or December,” said Arum.
“They’re over, they’re finished, they’re done,” said Arum when asked about the Anthony Joshua vs. Fury negotiations. “The fighters have signed, and now we’re waiting to firm up a site and a date.
“Now, obviously, it’s not as easy as it normally would be because of the pandemic.
“You know, a country that wanted to stage the fight and put up a big site fee may look and say that they’ve had so many COVID cases last week or last month that they don’t know when they’re going to be opening up. So it’s very, very delicate, having nothing to do with the fight. It’s really a logistic challenge.