FURY FIGHT OFF AS WILDER EYES TRILOGY

TYSON FURY’S trilogy fight with Deontay Wilder is back in the reckoning for early spring following cancellation of the Gypsy King’s world heavyweight title defence on December 5. Fury’s pre-Christmas UK homecoming at the Royal Albert Hall was officially abandoned last night, along with confirmation that his next fight will be in the United States. With Wilder’s claim of a contractual right to a third fight with Fury now going to legal arbitration, the door is open for their second rematch. That has implications for Anthony Joshua, who has agreed in principle to two world championship unification battles with Fury as the follow-up to a December 12 defence of his titles against Kubrat Pulev. The first of those super-fights has been pencilled in for Wembley early next year but Joshua may have to turn instead to his Matchroom stablemate Oleksandr Usyk as the opponent then. With Usyk, the former undisputed world cruiserweight champion, looking under-sized at heavyweight despite using his sublime skills to beat Derek Chisora, that fight presents less of a risk to Joshua than Wilder to Fury. If Fury or Joshua — or both — were to lose before they finally share a ring, the mega-millions value of their fights would reduce sharply. Fury is unhappy with the cancellation of his December fight against undefeated Germany heavyweight Agit Kabayel and his co-promoter Frank Warren says: ‘Tyson really didn’t want to be out for a full year and was eager to box again for his home fans. ‘We did everything but could not find a way to make it work without fans during the Covid pandemic. ‘ESPN hold the TV contract rights over there to his forthcoming fights, so it’s the US next for Tyson in late February or March. Although our priority has always been the big fight with Joshua, ideally that would be in the UK. So we now await the judge’s findings in America with regard to Wilder. That is still a huge fight.’ Since losing the follow-up to the controversial first-fight draw, Wilder has been making all manner of wild excuses and accusations. Those claims include his mask and costume being too heavy, his right bicep being ruptured, his water being drugged, Fury loading his gloves with weights and being allowed to get away with rabbit-punching. But on one key issue Wilder has remained consistent: ‘I gave Fury his first chance of fame,

I then stayed true to my promise to give him a rematch even though the referee robbed me of my knockout in LA. Now it’s his turn as a man to honour the pledge of giving me a rematch, which was in our contract.’ Warren’s Yuletide Special at the Royal Albert Hall will still go ahead on BT Sport, with Anthony Yarde topping the December 5 bill against the undefeated Lyndon Arthur. Meanwhile, Joshua’s world title defence against Pulev is set to switch venues across London, from the O2 Arena to the SSE Arena. A limited crowd was in the pipeline but the second lockdown has effectively ended that plan.