By William Lloyd: Tyson Fury’s promoter Frank Warren says October is when the postponed trilogy fight looks to be taking place with Deontay Wilder.
Fury tested, some of his team members tested positive for COVID-19, and he was forced to postpone the fight with ‘The Bronze Bomber.’
Warren sees it as “frustrating” that Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) won’t be able to face Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) in their scheduled July 24th date in Las Vegas, but these things happen.
As Warren points out, by the time WBC heavyweight champion Fury returns to the ring in October, he’ll have been out of the ring for 20 months.
Fury last fought in February 2020 when he defeated Wilder by a seventh-round knockout. That’s a long time for Fury or any heavyweight to be out of the ring.
What could be a concern is that if Fury is ring-rusty, he might not perform at the same level as he did in his rematch with Deontay a year ago.
Warren gives an update on Fury vs. Wilder 3
“It’s looking sometime in October, which is a great shame it’s been postponed,” said Warren to BT Sport on Fury, pulling out of his July 24th trilogy match with Wilder due to COVID-19.
“Unfortunately, they in the camp and himself got tested positive for COVID,” Warren continued. “There’s nothing we can do about it.
It’s the times we live in, so the fight is postponed. Pushed back.
“Very frustrating. Really frustrating for Tyson. By the time he gets into the ring, he will have been out for nearly 20 months. That’s a long, long time,” said Warren.
It’s too bad that Fury and his team can’t work a deal for Wilder to step aside to face Anthony Joshua in December.
If Fury could take the fight with AJ at the end of the year, he can face Wilder in the trilogy in the first quarter of 2022. It’s something to think about.
Being rusty for the Joshua fight isn’t quite as big a deal for Fury as it would for the lower-paying trilogy match against Wilder. If Fury gets beaten by Joshua, he’ll walk away with $100 million.
On the other hand, if Wilder defeats Fury, he won’t get the Joshua fight, and he’ll wind up with just the money. There’s no upside for Fury to fight the highly motivated Wilder again, which is why he should give him a step aside.
Hearn sounding suspicious about the postponement
“When there’s a big fight, and ticket sales are bombing, we know the game,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV on Fury pulling out of his July 24th fight against Wilder due to COVID.
Hearn sounds skeptical about why Fury pulled out of the fight, and he says the ticket sales weren’t going well for the Wilder trilogy on July 24th. Although Hearn isn’t saying that Fury is faking his illness, he said this:
“When you know how poorly something is going and you know what people have got to be paid…when something like that happens, sometimes there’s something more beyond that,” said Hearn.
We don’t know what’s going on with Tyson Fury. Presumably, Wilder’s team will verify Fury’s positive test for COVID-19 to ensure that he’s not using this to buy time to get in better shape or to run out the clock on the arbitrator’s September 15th cutoff for the fight.
If Fury needs more time beyond October to come back from his COVID-19 illness, it could be a problem for him to keep his WBC title. On Friday, WBC interim champion Dillian Whyte called for Fury to be made ‘Champion in Recess’ by the World Boxing Council.
Whyte wants to be elevated to WBC champion due to Fury’s illness, and he brings up a good point.
