Nothing is official yet, but it does seem to be looking more and more likely that Tyson Fury will fight Deontay Wilder for a third time next, not Anthony Joshua. Promoter Frank Warren told Talk Sport that a Fury-Joshua fight is “further away than ever,” and Joshua is now looking at taking care of his WBO mandatory challenger, Oleksandr Usyk.
If this is how things do pan out, the earliest a Fury-Joshua fight could happen is at the end of this year, but it could take longer than that. In terms of a third go at Fury, with who he is currently 0-1-1 with, Wilder put out a short message on social media, in which he posted the words: “Revenge is the sweetest joy – next to getting p***y.”
The date of July 24 has been spoken of quite a bit, with Top Rank reserving the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas for that date. While the WBC say they will sanction Fury-Wilder III should the fight go ahead – “Yes, we will sanction Fury V Wilder on request,” Mauricio Sulaiman said. “We are on board with Tyson and Anthony Joshua for the undisputed title, but a fight between our distinguished current and former heavyweight champion is also an outstanding event.” It’s amazing how things have changed so much in the space of two or three days.
This is how things ‘might’ happen now:
Fury and Wilder do fight a third fight, maybe on July 24.
Joshua might fight Usyk, possibly in August.
The two winners may then face each other in an enormous heavyweight unification showdown, to take place either late this year or sometime in the first third of 2022.
But who wins these two upcoming fights if they do happen? Fury and his fans are certain Wilder will be beaten again if the third fight does go ahead, simply as Fury was so dominant in the second fight back in February of 2020 (seemingly an eternity ago now, what with all that’s happened). But some good judges feel we will see a new and improved Wilder, that the former WBC heavyweight champ will indeed get his revenge.
As for Joshua-Usyk, AJ will likely enter the ring as a pretty big favorite. Usyk, a great cruiserweight, has not looked anywhere near as effective as a heavyweight, winning his two heavyweight fights but struggling somewhat against Dereck Chisora.
That massive Fury-Joshua super-fight, which appeared so close at the start of this week, is now something we will all have to wait for. Again, as Warren said, Fury-Joshua is further away than ever.
