Costume weighs heavily on Wilder
Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has promised that an all-british heavyweight unification clash between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury ‘‘will happen’’ – and predicted it could be the biggest fight in the sport’s history.
Hearn – who represents WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO titlist Joshua – said he would do everything in his power to agree a deal with newly crowned WBC champion Fury, who ended Deontay Wilder’s long title reign with a seventh-round stoppage in Las Vegas last weekend.
The Matchroom supremo said rival camps would be ‘‘clowns’’ and ‘‘idiots’’ if they didn’t make the fight for all the heavyweight belts happen this year.
‘‘Everybody is very clear on this. Everybody wants this fight – Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, MTK, Top Rank, Frank Warren [Fury’s promoters], Matchroom,’’ Hearn told Sky Sports in the UK.
‘‘There are some hurdles to overcome on the broadcasting, but nothing too much. I promise you this fight will happen.’’
However, Hearn did warn that both fighters would want to maximise their earnings in such a high-stakes showdown, which could mean it would be staged overseas rather than in the UK.
There are several obstacles standing in the way of an undisputed fight, with Joshua obligated to face his mandatory IBF challenger Kubrat Pulev next, likely in June at Tottenham Hostpur Stadium in London.
Fury, meanwhile, will have to fight Wilder for a third time because the American has decided to exercise a contractual clause for a rematch.
‘If we have to fight Pulev, we’ve got to beat Pulev, and if he [Fury] has to fight Wilder, he’s got to beat Wilder again,’’ Hearn said. ‘‘Fury will beat Wilder again and Joshua will knock Pulev clean out.
‘‘You will get this fight. We will do everything that it takes to make this fight.’’
Dethroned heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder has blamed his knockout defeat to Tyson Fury on the heavy costume he wore during the ring walk as he confirmed he would be exercising his right to a rematch.
The hard-hitting American, who was stopped in the seventh round by Fury in Las Vegas to lose his WBC title, told Yahoo Sports that the 18.1kg outfit made in tribute to Black History Month was too heavy and meant ‘‘he didn’t have the legs for the fight’’.
His trainer, Jay Deas, made a similar claim in the post-fight press conference after Wilder’s first professional loss, which came in the 11th defence of his heavyweight crown.
Wilder said he had worn the flashy $40,000 outfit to create a memorable night of entertainment, but it had backfired badly.
Incredibly, the 34-year-old claimed that he hadn’t been hurt by Fury’s punches, despite being knocked down in the third and fifth rounds and being dominated throughout by the classy Brit until the towel came in.
‘‘He didn’t hurt me at all, but the simple fact is . . . that my uniform was way too heavy for me,’’ Wilder said of the costume that featured armour, a mask and a crown.
‘‘I didn’t have no legs from the beginning of the fight . . . But I’m a warrior and people know that I’m a warrior. It could easily be told that I didn’t have legs or anything.
‘‘A lot of people were telling me, ‘It looked like something was wrong with you.’ Something was, but when you’re in the ring, you have to bluff a lot of things . . . I didn’t have the legs because of my uniform.’’
Conqueror Fury also made an elaborate entrance, being carried to ring on a throne while wearing a crown to symbolise the arrival of the ‘‘Gypsy King’’.
Wilder was taken to hospital after the fight but did not suffer concussion, a broken ear drum or jaw as was widely reported, merely requiring seven stitches to a small cut in his ear.
He said he plans to exercise his rematch clause for a trilogy fight with Fury, ending hopes of an immediate all-british unification fight between Fury and Anthony Joshua for all the heavyweight belts.
In the interview with Yahoo Sports, Wilder also criticised his assistant trainer Mark Breland for throwing in the towel in the seventh round to stop the fight as he was pummelled in the corner by an aggressive Fury. He suggested that the former Olympic gold medallist wouldn’t be part of his training team on fight night going forward as a result.
‘‘I am upset with Mark ... It is not an emotional thing, it’s a principal thing. We’ve talked about this situation many, many years before this even happened. I said as a warrior, as a champion, as a leader, as a ruler, I want to go out on my shield. If I’m talking about going in and killing a man, I respect the same way. I abide by the same principal of receiving.
‘‘So I told my team to never, ever, no matter what it may look like, to never throw the towel in with me because I’m a special kind. I still had five rounds left. No matter what it looked like, I was still in the fight.’’