Boxing News at Five: Wilder vs. Fury trilogy fight will take place this summer, Lomachenko vs. Lopez lined up for April 11 or 18

Deontay Wilder

THEY havenโ€™t even sorted out the details of the rematch but that hasnโ€™t stopped promoter Frank Warren claiming Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury will meet for a THIRD time this summer.

The pairโ€™s first fight, all the way back in December 2018, ended in a draw, while their rematch, which should have happened in 2019, is now rumoured to be happening on February 22, 2020.

Whether that does indeed go ahead remains to be seen, but a third fight, Warren says, is already in the works for next summer.

โ€œTyson is going to be back in the ring with Wilder on February 22,โ€ the British promoter told TalkSport.

โ€œAnd they will fight again, irrespective of who wins, in the summer.

โ€œSo that, at the moment, is all tied up.โ€

Though it would absolutely make sense for all involved for there to be three fights between Wilder and Fury, it would be foolish of anyone to count their chickens before the rematch has even taken place.

After all, a few weeks ago we would have been certain of Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz Jnr meeting for a third time at some point in 2020 if Joshua managed to gain revenge on December 7 in Saudi Arabia. But then we saw Ruiz on the scales and without his T-shirt and soon this, combined with the ease with which Joshua gained revenge, made a prospective rubber match pretty much pointless.

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Fury and Wilder after their December 2018 clash (Esther Lin/Showtime)

Days after scoring the win of his career, a second-round knockout of Richard Commey, IBF lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez says he is ready to take on arguably the best fighter on the planet as early as next April.

Twenty-two-year-old Lopez, from Brooklyn, is more than happy to step up and fight Vasyl Lomachenko, a man nine years his senior, and is already discussing potential dates.

โ€œPeople saw last Saturday what Iโ€™m capable of doing,โ€ Lopez told the Talkbox Boxing Podcast. โ€œHow we beat Commey is pretty much everything straight down the middle, and we executed that perfectly.

โ€œI would love for it (the Lomachenko fight) to be back home at the Garden in New York. That would be great. Weโ€™re still in talks. We already know the dates of April 18 and April 11th. We already know the dates. Itโ€™s in April. The only thing now is the location, how much weโ€™re going to get, and all the other things. Is it going to be pay-per-view? Is it not going to be pay-per-view?

โ€œI donโ€™t like him (Lomachenko) in general. I donโ€™t like him as a person, and thatโ€™s just me. There is going to be bad blood, and bad tension, and thatโ€™s what the fans like too. When Iโ€™m fighting, theyโ€™re trying to take my bread and butter, and thatโ€™s when I turn into the beast mode.โ€

Given their recent form, a fight WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO title fight between Lomachenko and Lopez hardly needs bad blood to make it fly out the door. But add some spice to the pot and we could be looking at one of the very best fights of 2020.

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Lopez is chasing Lomachenko (Mikey Williams/Top Rank)

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