THE Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder heavyweight clash has been rescheduled after Fury was infected in an outbreak of coronavirus in his training camp. Their bout will now take place on October 9 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
ESPN+ Pay-Per-View and FOX Sports Pay-Per-View will televise in the USA. The UK broadcaster has not yet been announced.
Tickets purchased for the original July 24 date will still be valid for the rescheduled contest.
This will be the third fight between Fury and Wilder. Their first contest was a controversial draw but then in a 2020 rematch Fury hammered Wilder in an inside the distance defeat. Although Fury’s representatives had begun talks for a possible showdown with Anthony Joshua, Wilder forced his contracted third fight with Fury into being through an arbitration.
“This is what we went to arbitration for,” said Shelly Finkel, Wilder’s manager. “He just wanted what was owed to him. He remains ready to reclaim his [WBC belt] on October 9.’’
“I wanted nothing more than to smash the ‘Big Dosser’ on July 24, but I guess the beating will have to wait,” Fury said. “Make no mistake, I will be back and better than ever. We will fight October 9, and I will knock him spark out.”
The delay means Fury is likely to fight only once this year, and he only boxed once in 2020 as well. If he is to eventually fight Anthony Joshua, the fight that the world is waiting to see, that would have to wait till 2022.
“If they both win their respective commitments, then there’s nothing in the way to stop it,” Frank Warren, Fury’s UK promoter, said. “It won’t happen in England in a stadium in February or March because of the weather.”
“It would have been ideal if Tyson had fought in July and Joshua had had his, then in December we could have got them both together,” he added. “If he [Fury] is fighting in October, he’s not going to get out again [this year]. That’s a fact.”
It’s also a problem. “He’ll have been out the ring now for 20 months. A long time,” Warren said of the disappointment. “The one good thing is he’s been in the gym. He has been training hard for the last 14 months, but he needs to fight. That was what was keeping him going.
“So very frustrating but it is what it is. It’s the times we live in so we just have to get on with it.”
