By Charles Brun: Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder was in full revenge mode training in posting a video of him lifting a huge wooden plank preparing for his trilogy match with Tyson Fury. Wilder says he wants Fury’s “Blood,” and he’s NOT interested in a step aside from the WBC champ.
Former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) won his arbitration case against the reluctant Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) last Monday.
Despite having a rematch clause in the contract from their previous fight in February 2020, Fury surprisingly chose not to honor it and instead went ahead and scheduled a fight with Anthony Joshua.
Wilder on a mission
It was a bizarre move on Fury’s part, which showed his fear of Wilder and arguably his ignorance of contracts.
With Wilder winning the arbitration case, Fury’s dream fight against Joshua has been sent into oblivion, and there’s a chance those two will NEVER fight.
If Wilder obliterates Fury in their rematch, which is expected to occur on July 24th in Las Vegas, he’ll need to fight him in a fourth clash later this year.
Fury will be fighting to save his career for all intents and purposes if he’s knocked cold by Wilder in July.
Their next fight would have Fury trying to pick up the broken pieces of what’s left of his once-promising career.
There’s no chance that Fury can walk away from a knockout loss to Wilder to turn around and face Joshua in November or December.
Unfortunately, Fury is forced to face him by September 15th at the latest, and there’s not much he can do about it unless he wants to cough up $20 million for a step aside.
I know what you and I would do if we were in Fury’s position. We’d gladly give Wilder the $20M and then move ahead to scoop up the $50 million from what’s left of the $75 million that Fury will be getting for his mega-fight with Joshua on August 14th.
But we’re talking about Fury here, and his ego will cause him to make the wrong decision by choosing to be stubborn about it and not give Wilder the step aside.
Fury still has time to save his mega-fight with AJ
“This arbitrator’s decision was always coming, whether it was a day, a week, a month, it was always coming,” said Chris Mannix to DAZN about Fury losing his arbitration case with Wilder last Monday.
“It was something out there that was looming, and I think it just came at a coincidental time to Fury vs. Joshua announcing their fight.
“The position coming from Team Wilder throughout is they want the Fury fight,” Mannix continued. “They want that fight next. That could be just a negotiating point because they now have the leverage.
“They have the arbitrator’s decision that is effectively binding. Even Bob Arum said, ‘There is no appeal to this.’ Any appeal would simply take too long, so this is what it is.
“Now when Deontay Wilder before when he was in no position to negotiate, now is in a strong position. Everything I’ve been hearing from Team Wilder is they want this Fury fight, but that could just be to drive up the price from Fury and Joshua to get a huge payday to do nothing for their fighter.
“You’re right about Wilder being an ultra-competitive guy. He literally built himself into a boxer from the ground up. He’s got three managers.
“If these guys convince Deontay Wilder that taking step aside money is the right way to go, you can probably convince Deontay Wilder that’s the case,” said Mannix.
Fury will be stubborn and stingy about it by not giving Wilder the 20 million smackers for a step aside fee.
So instead of giving Wilder the cash to get him to go away, Fury will gamble big by facing the 6’7″ talent and hope that he can beat him. If Fury gambles wrong, his career could be over.
Wilder will knock him out and likely stop him a second time later this year to send him out to pasture.
