A trilogy bout between Tyson Fury (30-0-1) and Deontay Wilder (42-1-1) is now set to take place.
It seemed the current WBC champion Fury was set to face the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO champion in Anthony Joshua (24-1) for an all British heavyweight unification title bout.
However after an arbitration ruling was set in place, negotiations for a unification bout stopped and instead Wilder and Fury have verbally agreed for a rubber match according to sources confirmed to ESPN.
The fight is rumoured to happen in Las Vegas on July 24th or August 14th according to ESPN’s Marc Kriegel. Venue in Las Vegas is yet to be determined. Bob Arum told ESPN that contracts will be signed very soon and purses will be split in favour of Fury 60-40.
Recently, an arbitrator ruled that Fury was contractually obligated to fight Wilder in a trilogy bout. Their first bout ended in a draw back in December 2018. A rematch took place in February 2020, where Fury dominated Wilder and earned a 7th round finish after the American’s corner team threw in the towel. As a result, Fury became the WBC heavyweight champion.
According to Arum, the plan for Fury to fight Wilder in the summer instead of paying him a step-aside fee and then hopefully to fight Joshua for the undisputed heavyweight title.
Both Fury and Wilder have not fought since they fought in their rematch in February 2020.
“I’ll smoke Wilder first then you will get yours [as well],” Fury tweeted towards Joshua on Tuesday.
Joshua, who holds three of the four major belts, could possibly fight Oleksandr Usyk if Fury is unavailable. Usyk has a right as the WBO mandatory challenger and has called out his right to face the British fighter.
What are your thoughts on all the politics getting in the way of the big boxing fights the fans want to see?
