Now that Anthony Joshua has decided to fight Alexander Povetkin, Tyson Fury has volunteered to give Deontay Wilder a chance to beat “the real world heavyweight champion” from England.
The ever-confident Fury (26-0, 19 KOs) issued a challenge to Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) in a video posted to Fury’s Instagram account Wednesday. The 6-feet-9, 275-pound Fury is tentatively scheduled to fight August 18 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but the former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO champion is more than willing to battle Wilder next.
“Deontay Wilder, I’ll apologize on behalf of Eddie Hearn and Anthony Joshua for stringing you along,” Fury said during the video. “Basically, I’ll apologize because they’re from the same country as I am. Let me tell you, you’re talking and looking to the original, real world heavyweight champion from this country – me. They won’t fight you. They’ve took three months, stringing the fans along, with no intentions of fighting. I’ll fight you in three seconds, never mind three minutes.”
Fury, 29, ended a 2½-year layoff June 9. He stopped overmatched Sefer Seferi (23-2, 21 KOs) following four uneventful rounds at Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
Fury’s defeat of Seferi marked his return from treatment for alcoholism, drug addiction and depression. Those issues forced Fury to give up the heavyweight titles he won by upsetting Ukraine’s Wladimir Klitschko (64-5, 53 KOs) in November 2015 in Dusseldorf, Germany.
The trash-talking Fury figures Alabama’s Wilder, the WBC champ, should want to fight him now that Joshua (21-0, 20 KOs) will make a mandatory defense of his WBA title against Russia’s Povetkin (34-1, 24 KOs). On Tuesday, the WBA ordered Hearn, Joshua’s promoter, and Andrey Ryabinskiy, Povetkin’s promoter, to make a deal for their mandated match within 24 hours.
The WBA granted Hearn and Wilder’s handlers additional time to finalize a deal for what would be one of the biggest fights in boxing before issuing its ultimatum for a Joshua-Povetkin deal.
“Get your boss, Al Haymon,” Fury told Wilder. “Send me the contract and I’ll show you how long it takes to sign it. Wallop. Ten seconds. Done. Signed, stamped, delivered, photograph taken, uploaded on Instagram. You wanna fight the best this country’s ever had, knock on my door and see if the ‘Gypsy King’ doesn’t answer. Boom! The ball’s in your court.”
Wilder is expected to fight an opponent other than Fury later this year, perhaps American contender Dominic Breazeale (19-1, 17 KOs).
–boxingscene
