Tyson Fury is and has been for a while, a household name here in the UK, and Top Rank boss Bob Arum aims to do the same for the reigning lineal heavyweight champ in the U.S. Fury, soon to box the first fight of his multi-fight deal with ESPN (against unheralded and largely unknown, outside of Germany at least, Tom Schwarz) is a controversial, outspoken figure, and Arum says he can promote the giant in such a way that the general public in America will “fall in love with him just the way they fell in love with George Foreman.”
Arum outlined his plans when speaking with RingTV.com, and the 87 year old marvel said the big, big fight to make is that return clash between Fury, unbeaten, and Deontay Wilder, the unbeaten WBC heavyweight boss. Arum, perhaps being realistic, perhaps not so much, said the sequel between the boxer (Fury) and the puncher (Wilder) can “do two million homes.”
Arum spoke of the rematch being a super-fight that could go out jointly on ESPN and Showtime.
“Boxing people know of Fury; the general public in the U.S doesn’t know him. They’ll fall in love with him just the way they fell in love with George Foreman,” Arum told the website of The Bible of Boxing. “Hopefully next year we can match him with Deontay Wilder. We’ll do our job making Fury a household name in the United States. I hope the other side does the same with Wilder, because I would hope that when they fight each other hopefully next year, we could do two million homes. Again, it’s not difficult to do that match because Wilder has Showtime and Tyson has ESPN. A joining distribution would be called for and I really believe if everyone does their job, we could do two million homes watching that great fight.”
Arum added how he feels that, as great as the first fight was, on December 1st, with Wilder and Fury boxing to a draw, a return would be even better. But can both champions become genuine stars, household names? Both have the personality, and Wilder, more so than Fury, has the explosive and exiting fighting style. Maybe we could even get three fights out of these two, and if so, that would surely boost the profile if both men. Together, these two may well prove to be an unmissable attraction.
But will fans really love Fury the way they loved (and still love) Big George? That might be a stretch. There is as we know, only one George Foreman. Fury might be just a little too outspoken for some.
