Bob Arum explodes over face-off issue for Fury vs. Wilder 3 press conference

By Boxing News - 10/06/2021 - Comments

By Scott Gilfoid: Tyson Fury’s promoter Bob Arum sounded like he needed to be put in a straightjacket after getting worked up over FOX host Kate Abdo making the mistake of asking for Deontay Wilder and Fury to face-off at the end of their final press conference on Wednesday in Las Vegas.

Arum was hopping mad at Abdo for her asking for the talented former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) and Fury to face-off after a heated exchange during the press conference.

The Top Rank promoter Arum was worried that Deontay and Fury might start swinging on each other as we saw recently with Canelo Alvarez and Caleb Plant in their Los Angeles press conference. Plant ended up with a cut eye. That was the perfect storm, created by Plant with his sharp wit and cutting remarks over Canelo’s past positive drug test.

Arum says he told everyone ahead of time “No face-offs,” but apparently Kate Abdo didn’t get the word.  Who knows? Arum was probably right. She looked completely innocent standing on stage, apologizing while being told repeatedly by Arum from the audience, “NO FACE-OFF!”

Image: Bob Arum explodes over face-off issue for Fury vs. Wilder 3 press conference

It was kind of amusing to watch how worked up Arum got over a minor thing. Poor Fury. He looked totally focused, as he seemed to want the face-off with Wilder.

That would be priceless to watch the two trash-talking, and maybe a little pushing, slapping, or slugging. What the heck? At least the fans would have something interesting to look forward to instead of hearing Fury blabber with his worn-out “Dosser”‘ insult towards Wilder. Even if one of them did get injured, the postponement would make the Fury vs. Wilder III even more intriguing.

As angry as Wilder looked, he might have reached over and swatted Fury with one of his right-hand bombs. As angry-looking as Wilder was, he would have knocked Fury out cold if he’d lit into him with one of his sledgehammer rights.

“We have controls so they don’t do something like that,” said an angry Bob Arum in explaining why there wasn’t a face-off for the Fury vs. Wilder final press conference. “You know if there was a face-off, they would have shoved each other.

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“There was no security up there [on stage] and there was this broad [FOX Sports host Kate Abdo] egging them on. Because she was with FOX, she was totally prejudiced.

“Of course, Tyson wouldn’t let her get away, towards Deontay Wilder and that’s okay.

“So who was going to stop anything? Again, they’re emotional, they’re fighters, they’re human beings and they’ve insulted each other in front of the world, saying the worst things about each other, which is acceptable.

“Words don’t do any damage. Now, you put them together like they’re angry dogs, and you want them to start pushing for somebody to start something.

“Because FOX ran this event. Of course, you should have security,” said Arum when asked WHY there wasn’t security on the stage. Of course, PBC did their job, they were arguing with FOX.

“No face-off, get security. They understand.  It’s these boxing people from FOX, they don’t know crap. They bring this woman [Kate Abdo] from the UK and she’s slanting the whole press conference to Wilder.

“I don’t give a damn, but it’s obvious that’s what she was doing. And then she knew the understanding was, no face-off. Tom Brown argued with FOX, no face-off.

“We said, ‘No face-off,’ and what does she say? ‘Now, we’re going to do a face-off. F*** her and F*** them, there was no face-off and we saved the fight,” said an angry Arum.