Tyson Fury: Wilder is next – whenever, wherever

Tyson Fury has re-iterated that his next fight will definitely be that trilogy match against Deontay Wilder later this year.

‘The Gypsy King’ (30-0-1) is currently set to defend his World Boxing Council (WBC), Ring magazine and lineal world heavyweight titles against ‘The Bronze Bomber’ (42-1-1) on Saturday December 19 – likely in front of between 10,000 and 15,000 spectactors at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

With Wilder strangely silent for months since that devastating stoppage defeat by Fury back in February, the rumour mill has been constant that the third fight might not happen after all.

And in the last week Eddie Hearn has said that he is ready for contracts to be signed for two fights between Fury and his man Anthony Joshua in 2021. Those fights of course would be the biggest in British boxing history.

Fury though has repeatedly said he will honour his contractual obligation to defend his belts against Wilder, and took to Twitter on Friday to again make the point.

He said: “Again just to put everyone straight I’m fighting @BronzeBomber next whenever it is wherever it is. Everyone else can join the queue, #fakenews.”

The trilogy match with Wilder has already been delayed twice by the global COVID-19 pandemic with potential dates in July and October scuppered.

While Fury’s co-promoter Bob Arum remains hopeful Vegas will be able to stage the fight on December 19, he has also mooted the possibility of Asia being a fallback plan on the first weekend of February 2021.

Fury meanwhile has always said he is desperate to fight again before the end of 2020 – a December Fury clash would be 10 months since his last fight.

The road to Fury vs Joshua appears to be much clearer than it was a month ago thanks to WBC mandatory contender Dillian Whyte being stopped by Alexander Povetkin at Matchroom Fight Camp.

But there is still the potential blocker of WBO mandatory Oleksandr Usyk, who says he expects to face the winner of Joshua’s December 12 title defence against Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev.