Eddie Hearn is suspicious about the true reasons why the Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder 3 fight is being postponed from July 24th to October 9th. According to Hearn, he predicted the Fury-Wilder fight wouldn’t happen on July 24th.
Somehow, Hearn knew the fight wouldn’t happen on July 24th, and now he suspects it WON’T happen in October either. If Eddie is right, the fight could keep getting pushed down the road.
If the Fury vs. Wilder III fight needs a solid year of postponements for it to take place finally, there might be some interest by 2022.
Of course, it would help if the World Boxing Council stripped Fury and gave him the ‘Champions in Recess’ tag so that Wilder can get on with his career instead of waiting endlessly for him to convalesce
Hearn states that ticket sales weren’t going well for the trilogy match between the two heavyweights, and he sees it as odd that we’re all suddenly hearing Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) has got COVID-19, as well as some of his team.
While Hearn does believe that someone in Fury’s team has COVID-19, he doesn’t know what to think. After his dealings with his recent dealings with Team Fury, he doesn’t know what to believe.
Obviously, not a good sign that Fury is getting COVID-19 while the ticket sales are going poorly. Is that just a coincidence?
Fury vs. Wilder wasn’t selling
“I told you the fight wouldn’t happen,” said Hearn to iFL TV about Fury coming down with COVID-19 and his fight with Wilder being postponed.
“Whether it’s COVID related, whether it’s they haven’t sold any tickets, whether it was worry that the pay-per-view was going to flop, whether it was Fury’s camp wasn’t going great, I have no idea.
“I’m sure someone has got Covid, and it’s not an unusual occurrence. I think when you look at the manifest and the seats available online, you look at how few tickets were sold for the event; it does start stinking a little bit.
“But I’m sure there’s some truth to it. October is a bit weird. It’s all a bit weird. The fight might be delayed because someone in the camp has got Covid.
“An hour later, Fury’s got Covid, and then an hour later, it’s off. Top Rank said, ‘It’s not off; we’ll keep you updated.’ Then a half an hour later, it’s off. Who knows?” said Hearn.
With the way the second Wilder-Fury fight played out with the controversy over the gloves and the fouling, it’s not surprising that tickets weren’t selling.
Wilder obviously didn’t help by wearing headphones during the kickoff press conference on June 15th. He looked absolutely disengaged from the process, showing that he had hard feelings about what had happened in their two previous fights.
If you’re Wilder, it’s understandable why he’d be bitter. Heck, he should have been given credit for a knockout of Fury in the first fight when he blasted him to the canvas in the twelfth round.
In the rematch, we saw Fury get away with murder with his rabbit punching. It was weird. The referee didn’t lift a finger to control Fury’s punching behind the head, and there might as well have nobody in the ring that night.
Hearn: No one wants to see the Fury-Wilder fight
“It’s very difficult when you’ve had the type of dealings we’ve had [with Team Fury] to believe anything,” Hearn said. “So if he does have COVID, I wish him all the best.
“I don’t know why it’s being delayed until October? It’ll now be over a year and a half since they last fought,” Hearn said about Wilder, and Fury has been inactive since February 2020.
“Clearly, from the reaction from the fans and the ticket sales, no one wants to see the fight. So if there’s a way to maneuver the undisputed fight [between Fury and Anthony Joshua], then we’ll see.
“So it is what it is, I don’t give a s***. I said the [Fury vs. Wilder] fight wasn’t happening on July 24th.
“Whether that was luck me saying that or whatever. But I don’t believe anything I hear or anything involved with that.
“I don’t even know if it’ll happen in October. Who knows? I don’t trust anything that’s said,” said Hearn.
If the boxing fans in the U.S aren’t interested in purchasing tickets for the trilogy match between Deontay and Tyson, the promoters need to consider moving it to a location where it will sell.
Taking it to the UK might help, but I’m not sure that Fury can sell tickets. Unlike Anthony Joshua, Fury isn’t a huge ticket seller in the UK.
Oddly, Fury wouldn’t be a popular ticket seller in his home country, but the fans haven’t taken to him in the same way they have with Joshua.
Maybe it’s Fury’s lack of power, his constant bragging, or the fact that he doesn’t have an Olympic background.
Whatever the case, Fury isn’t super popular in his home country. Hence, Fury has come to the U.S to become a star, but in this case, he wasn’t popular enough to sell tickets for his trilogy match with Deontay.
The marketing for the July 24th trilogy needed more work, as there was zero drama this time. Fury was wearing fancy clothes, looking more like a millionaire in Monte Carlo than a fighter getting ready for war.