By William Lloyd: Tyson Fury is in a sticky situation after his arbitration case with Deontay Wilder went against him on Monday.
Fury has now been ordered to face the former WBC heavyweight champion, Wilder, by September 15th at the latest, which puts the August 14th fight with Anthony Joshua at risk. That’s the desired fight that Fury and all of the boxing world wish to see happen next.
Fury’s co-promoter Frank Warren sees there being two possible options for him about Wilder. He can either fight ‘The Bronze Bomber’ Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) or reach a deal with his management so that the Joshua – Fury fight can precede as planned on August 14th in Saudi.
“Until we can reach an accommodation with Deontay Wilder’s people, I can’t say that [Joshua vs. Fury] will definitely happen,” Warren said to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme.
“But we are working hard to get that over the line. We were talking last night and hopefully we can do that. If not, then Tyson, if he wishes, will go to the fight with Wilder. They’re the only two options.”
Getting Wilder to agree to a step aside deal could be problematic for a couple of reasons. Wilder and his management will already have noticed the large $155 million site deal the Saudis are offering to Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) and Joshua to stage their August 14th fight in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
With that kind of money available, Wilder will likely want to get a small taste of the green, perhaps as much as $20 million long with a guarantee that he fights the winner of the Joshua vs. Fury fight in November or December.
More importantly, Wilder wants/needs to avenge his previous loss to Fury from 2020, and he’d not be likely to be amenable to making a deal to step aside, no matter how much money is offered to him.
Obviously, it doesn’t help matters that Fury’s other promoter Bob Arum, speaking in absolutes, telling ESPN, “We’re not paying Wilder to step aside.”
“It’s better to get rid of him and go about our business. We can make the Fury-Joshua fight for November or December.”
Arum wants to stage the Fury vs. Wilder III fight at the new 65,000 seat Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 24th.
The obvious reason why Arum is in such a hurry to stage the Fury-Wilder 3 fight in July is that he wants to squeeze in the Fury vs. Joshua clash for November or December.
But it might be a bad idea for Fury to rush into the third fight with Wilder in two months from now, as ‘The Gypsy King’ doesn’t look like he’s physically ready to hop back into the ring with the 6’7″ Wilder in two months from now.
Fury needs more work on losing weight and getting mentally ready for the fight. If anyone has seen how good Wilder has been looking lately with his new trainer Malik Scott, that’s reason enough to pump the brakes hard for a third Fury-Wilder fight.
If Arum is going to insist on making the Fury vs. Wilder fight next, he should push it back to September so that his fighter has time to get ready.
After all, there will be a lot on the line for that clash. If Fury loses to Wilder, he can forget about fighting Joshua at the end of the year. Fury would be stuck fighting Wilder in the fourth clash with his career essentially being at risk for that match.