By: Sean Crose
If there was anything certain after Deontay Wilder’s one sided loss to Tyson Fury last winter it was the fact that Wilder clearly wanted a rematch. Even though he had been thrashed by the towering Englishman, Wilder left little doubt in the minds of fans and analysts that he was eager to activate a stipulation cause in his contract and face Fury for the third time. For his own part, Fury had, and still does, seem more than willing to fight Wilder once more. And why wouldn’t he be? After battling his American rival to a draw the first time around, Fury made the rematch – where Wilder’s co-trainer Mark Breland threw in the towel in the seventh round – look like a walk through the park.
Now, however, word is making the rounds that Fury-Wilder 3 might not go down this year – if at all. The main problem, it seems, is getting together enough money to fund a mega fight of this nature. It might seem easy to get investment money in this type of endeavor – it’s a heavyweight championship bout, after all – but this is the era of Covid-19, where live gates aren’t really much of a reality. When one considers the fact that live gates can bring in millions for a major card, it’s easy to see where the problem lies.
Still, no one seems to be quite sure what’s going on. A high ranking member of team Fury will say one thing, while a high ranking member of team Wilder will say something else. The only thing everyone can truly seem to agree on is the fact that a third throw down between the super sized heavyweights has been a long time coming. The bout was supposed to go down in the summer, then the fall, then smack dab in between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now people are asking if there will be any fight at all.
And the truth is that only time will tell. Anyone who remembers the insane lead up to Floyd Mayweather signing a contract to face Manny Pacquiao nearly six years ago knows how difficult it can be to put an enormous fight together. Also noteworthy is the fact that boxing is a business of loose lips, sometimes deliberately loose lips, so it’s often best to simply wait and see before jumping to any conclusions. With Fury’s fellow Brit Anthony Joshua waiting in the wings, however, the sooner a degree of clarity is reached, the better.