After a week of drama which has seen one of sport’s most anticipated matchups in recent history called off, British heavyweight and WBC titleholder Tyson Fury and his American counterpart Deontay Wilder are now set to go fist-for-fist in a trilogy bout.
According to promoter Bob Arum, all necessary paperwork will be sorted out in the coming days.
Arum’s Promotion company Top Rank have also moved swiftly to book the Allegiant stadium in Las Vegas as a potential venue for the showdown, following American arbitrator, retired judge Daniel Weinstein, ruling in favour of Team Wilder, who had long insisted that the Bronze Bomber held contractual entitlements to demand a trilogy against Fury.
“It’s better to get rid of him (Wilder) and go about our business. We can make the Fury and Joshua fight for November or December,”
Arum told ESPN shortly after the court ruling.
This means that any possibilities of Fury’s heavyweight unification bout against compatriot Joshua would have to wait (or probably never get to see the light of day?), and the former has not held back his resentment.
Fury and Joshua were involved in a heated back and forth on social media following Monday’s ruling
Whether or not the Gypsy King was chasing ‘clout’ with his persuit of a bout with AJ is a whole story and debate for another day, but the Mancunian is now fully focused on defending the WBC belt he claimed from defeating Wilder in February last year and ESPN are reporting that prize moneys will be split 60-40 in favour of Fury.
Their February 2020 showdown saw Fury dominate Wilder to claim victory in just seven rounds after a TKO decision, with their first ever meeting back in December 2018 – a bout which Wilder thought he deserved to win – ended in a controversial draw.
With this trilogy now nailed on to happen, Fury’s supposed opponent for their now abandoned (or maybe I should say postponed?) August 14 heavyweight unification bout Anthony Joshua and British promoter Eddie Hearn are in the hunt for an opponent, with Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk tipped.
