Frank Warren believes he can negotiate a mega-fight deal for former unified heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury to challenge WBC champion Deontay Wilder before the end of the year in November or December, according to Talksport.
If Warren is able to successfully negotiate the Fury-Wilder fight in 2018, he would be accomplishing something that Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn miserably failed at in attempting to put together a unification fight between his golden goose fighter heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and Deontay. This will be HUGE boxing news if Warren is able to make the deal for the Wilder vs. Fury fight in 2018. We’re talking total cash for both fighters, and a fight that will likely eclipse all others this year.
Team Wilder offered Joshua a $50 million guarantee. However, Hearn countered with a flat fee offer to Wilder of $15 million for a fight that could bring in untold riches. If Wilder had agreed to the deal, it likely would have been stupendous deal for Joshua, but not a great one for Deontay.
Before Fury (26-0, 19 KOs) can think of facing Deontay in November or December, he first needs to get past the capable Francesco Pianeta (35-4-1, 21 KOs) on August 18 at Windsor Park in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Fury, 29, is supposed to beat the 6’5” Pianeta without any problems, but you can never know for sure. As bad as Fury looked in his comeback fight against the tiny 5’9” Sefer Seferi (23-2, 21 KOs) on June 9, Pianeta could upset applecart on August 18 by sending the 6’9” Fury skittering down to defeat.
The only guys that have ever given the two-time heavyweight world title challenger Pianeta problems during his 13-year pro career are heavyweights with some pop in their punches. Unfortunately for Fury, he’s just a slapper at best. He’s not the type of puncher that has given Pianeta problems during his career. Pianeta beats the slappers. His only losses have come against Wladimir Klitschko, Ruslan Chagaev, Kevin Johnson and Petar Milas.
”Well, actually they’re two competitive and very good fighters, but with due respect to them, we’re actually trying to make the fight with Deontay Wilder,” Fury’s promoter Frank Warren said to talksport.com. ”Tyson has been talking about Wilder in the last few weeks and it’s a fight I think the British fans would like to see. If it’s to happen, it will be in November or December. I’m pretty confident we can make I happen…If you really want to make a deal you will make I happen.”
Boy, I bet Joshua’s promoter Hearn will be hopping mad if Warren is able to put together the Fury-Wilder fight for Nov. or Dec. and Fury pulls it off by beating the 6’7” Deontay. Yeah, Hearn will look to make the best of it by working on negotiating a unification fight between Joshua and Fury, but he’d lose the Joshua-Wilder fight, because it won’t bring in the same kind of money once Deontay suffers his first career loss and is no longer the World Boxing Council heavyweight champion. I hate to say it but Fury is going to make Joshua and Hearn look bad if he takes the fight with Wilder. Fury taking on Wilder would be a move of incredible courage. Joshua turned down $50 million to fight Wilder. Some boxing fans believe that Joshua was so terrified of sharing the ring with Wilder, it was better for him to reject the offer and instead take the fight against the smallish 6’2” Alexander Povetkin on September 22 at Wembley Stadium.
Fury will be showing tremendous courage to take on the lightning fast Deontay in just his third fight of his comeback after being out of the ring for 2 ½ years. Fury was out of boxing from 2015 to 2018 after defeating unified heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in Dusseldorf, Germany in November 2015. Fury came back to defeat Seferi, which obviously was a low level fight. Pianeta is another low level opponent for Fury. To go from facing the likes of Pianeta and Seferi to facing Wilder with his one-punch power is a major step up for Fury.
Hearn would obviously like to have Fury face one of his Matchroom heavyweights Dillian Whyte and Dereck Chisora before the end of the year, as both of them had huge victories last Saturday night over former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker and Carlos Takam. However, Fury has already beaten Chisora twice, and he would gain nothing in beating him a third time. Whyte would be a waste of time for Fury because he arguably lost to Parker or at least he should have lost if the referee hadn’t given him credit for a bogus head-butt knockdown in round 2. Whyte got away with a massive amount of fouling in the fight against Parker that likely would have resulted in multiple point deductions if a different referee had worked the fight. Whyte finished terribly in getting dropped in the 12th and being on the verge of losing by knockout as the fight ended. As such, Fury would gain nothing from fighting Whyte, as there’s no upside in taking on a guy who looked so incredibly bad last Saturday. There’s no positive in Fury fighting Chisora or Whyte in an interim fight before facing Joshua. The only guy that makes sense for Fury to fight is Deontay. It’s the biggest money fight out there for Fury aside from a match against Joshua, and it’s a match that potentially will give him the WBC heavyweight title, which would be a huge bargaining chip to carve out a better deal with Joshua when the time comes for them to face each other.
Of course, Fury will likely be a tremendous underdog against Wilder, as he doesn’t possess the hand speed, power or the athleticism as the talented American. Oh well, that’s how it goes. If Fury wants the fame and fortune, he has to prove that he can beat a more talented fighter than himself again. He did it once in defeating Wladimir, who was faster, stronger and more athletically gifted of the two. Wladimir was beaten mentally by Fury. The 6’6” Wladimir let Fury get to him before and during the fight, and this kept the Ukrainian talent from using his superior skills to win what should have been an easy fight for him.
Fury could drag it out for another three or four fights before taking a step up against Wilder, but it appears he’s not interested in waiting for his chance to win the WBC title. Hearn would likely jump at the chance to match former WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew against Fury if there was mutual interest in making that fight, but unfortunately there’s not. Bellew is NOT a world champion, and he’s done nothing at the heavyweight level other than beating an old and shot David Haye. At the cruiserweight level, Bellew never fought the talented fighters in the division like Aleksandr Usyk, Mairis Briedis, Denis Lebedev, Murat Gassiev and Yunier Dorticos. The only guy that Bellew beat at cruiserweight that is worth mentioning is Illunga Makabu in 2016, who is no longer anywhere to be seen in the division rankings since that loss. When a fighter completely disappears from division rankings after a loss, it suggests that they shouldn’t have ever been ranked highly in the first place. Bellew unfortunately hasn’t earned the Fury fight. That could change if Bellew is able to defeat Aleksandr Usyk in November or December. A win for Bellew over Usyk would make him a very good option for Fury if he gets past Deontay to win his WBC title this year.