By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury doesn’t seem bothered that Deontay Wilder cost him a $250 million fight last August against former IBF/WBA/WBO champion Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia. Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) lost out on a huge payday and the opportunity to become the undisputed heavyweight champion.
Wilder forced Fury to give him his contractual rematch by going to the U.S courts and winning his case recently. Had Wilder not done that, Fury intended to walk away from his contractual rematch with him and face Joshua.
Fury didn’t offer Wilder a step aside
Interestingly, Fury admits that he never even attempted to offer Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) to step aside fee so that he could take the fight with Joshua.
AJ’s promoter Eddie Hearn was speechless after finding out that Fury hadn’t even attempted to offer Wilder a step aside so that the Joshua fight could go ahead.
With all the hard work Hearn had put in arranging the Saudi deal for the lucrative site fee for an August Joshua-Fury undisputed clash, Fury didn’t lift a finger to save the deal by offering Wilder a step aside.
The money Wilder would have asked for would have been a mere pittance compared to the enormous dough that Fury would have made for the Joshua fight.
It’s baffling that Fury didn’t even try to preserve it with his ham-handed approach to the Joshua fight. You got to wonder what Fury’s promoter Bob Arum was telling him in the background?
Did Arum give Fury the brilliant idea NOT to pay Wilder a step aside, or was this his baby?
If Fury loses to Wilder this Saturday, he may be kicking himself for stubbornly choosing not to offer the ‘Bronze Bomber’ a step aside fee.
Fury missed his window to make a massive amount of money against Joshua, who was recently dethroned by Oleksandr Usyk last September 25th.
Joshua has now lost again, and his career could be on the brink of implosion if he goes ahead with his wacky idea of facing Usyk in an immediate rematch next March. If Joshua loses that fight, it would be pointless for him to fight Fury afterward.
Fury admits Wilder cost him massive money
“Yeah. He’s cost me a few quid, hasn’t he? He has,” said Tyson Fury to ESPN on Deontay, blocking his chance to fight Joshua last August by taking it to court.
“They [Team Wilder] did ask me, would I be willing to pay him any money [for a step aside], and I said no, I’d rather smash his face in, again. But there were no real conversations about it,” Fury said on the idea of offering Wilder a step aside so the Joshua could still go ahead last August.
It’s incredible how badly Fury mangled his fight with Joshua by not offering Wilder a step aside deal. I mean, even if Fury beats Wilder on Saturday, it’s still too late for him to fight Joshua, whose career is about to go belly up.
Joshua is about to make his dumb move by opting to take the immediate rematch with Usyk in early next year rather than taking Arum up on his step aside offer.
After Joshua gets beaten again by Usyk, it’s going to look silly for Fury to attempt to set up a fight with AJ.
“It’s difficult. There’s a saying, if you play with fire long enough, you’re going to get burned. But I’m not afraid of anything,” said Fury on fighting Wilder a third time after seemingly having beaten him in both of their first two fights.
“Of course he is. I think he’s like a caged tiger, ready to be unleashed. He’s got nothing to lose,” Fury said when asked if Wilder is ‘still dangerous.’ “We’ll see what he can do on Saturday night.”