Some fighters, after they have engaged in the most heated, the most intense, the most bad-blooded of rivalries, come together, show mutual respect, and even become somewhat friendly. We’ve seen this with Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales, with Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier (sort of, anyway, Joe never truly forgave Ali for what he said about him, not ever), and, going back farther, with Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta.
But as far as Deontay Wilder and his rivalry with Tyson Fury is concerned – no way. Nothing doing. Wilder says he will never let the bad blood go as far as he and Fury go. Wilder, speaking with FightHype.com, said he still fully believes Fury cheated and this is the reason he will never forge ANY kind of a brotherhood with the man who defeated him twice. Not only that, but Wilder says he would “most definitely” fight Fury a fourth time.
“Nah, never, because I know the truth behind that,” Wilder said in response to being asked if he and Fury could ever be anything like friends. “I don’t condone cheating and shit like that. I know that no matter what people say. It’s just like, you got analysts who say, ‘If he [Fury] did have something in his glove why did you not go to the authorities?’ I wish I was in front of them [the boxing analysts] and I would grab their collar and put them close to my face so we can be eye to eye… and I would tell them, ‘why the f**k would I go to the authorities when I have an opportunity to release my own energy and put my hands on him in the process of maybe trying to kill him and get paid millions of dollars for doing it?’ Why would I go to the authorities?”
Wilder is basically saying that, had he gone to the authorities and proven his case that Fury was cheating (he wasn’t), he would have lost out on one or two huge paydays (it depends which fight, the first or the second one, Wilder is, still, insisting Fury cheated in) as Fury would have been “locked up.” Instead, according to Wilder’s logic, he went into the ring with a man he “knows” cheated, and took the risk, this in an effort to settle things with his “own energy.” You can buy it if you want. It is a shame, though, that Wilder – as great and as heroically as he fought in all three wars with Fury – cannot simply admit he was beaten by the better man. It seems this will never happen. Wilder will never be able to let it go.
But a fourth fight? Does anyone want to see that? Fight-three was great, but surely this rivalry is done everywhere aside from in Wilder’s mind. Still, with the Wilder-Robert Helenius winner set to face Andy Ruiz in a WBC final eliminator, Wilder could soon be Fury’s mandatory challenger. A fourth fight between Fury and Wilder sure would come as a shock, but nothing can be ruled out in today’s heavyweight division.
Nothing apart from Wilder shaking hands with Fury and burying the hatchet. That will never happen, or so it seems.
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