SAUDI ARABIA: The most awaited boxing match of this year between the ‘Gypsy King’ Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua which was set to happen on August 14 in Saudi Arabia has been delayed.
The reason behind the delay is the arbitration between Fury and Deontay Wilder. Wilder is a former WBC world heavyweight champion and has fought against Fury on two occasions. The first fight between the two was a draw. However, in the second fight, Fury tko’d Wilder to win the heavyweight title. Since, the fighters had signed a two-fight deal, Fury had to fight Wilder in a trilogy. Now, the arbitrator in the Fury and Wilder rematch dispute, Daniel Weinstein ruled in favor of Wilder, saying that Fury owes Wilder a third fight. The trilogy match will now take place on July 24.
Talking about this, boxing promoter Bob Arum said, “We don’t want to give Wilder step aside money as Wilder said that he wanted 20 million dollars to step aside and that he’ll fight the winner of Joshua vs Fury.”
“We won’t give a single dollar to him. We want Fury to defeat Wilder and just go on with the Joshua vs Fury match,” he added.
Meanwhile, Fury said that he will knock Wilder out faster than the last time. In their last fight, Wilder got knocked out in the 7th round.
World Boxing Organization (WBO), World Boxing Association (WBA) and International Boxing Federation (IBF) champion Joshua wasn’t happy about the trilogy match. Joshua took a dig on Fury in his recent tweets.
“@Tyson_Fury the world now sees you for the fraud you are. You’ve let boxing down! You lied to the fans and led them on. Used my name for clout not a fight. Bring me any championship fighter who can handle their business correctly.”
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Now, WBO has given a deadline to Joshua’s team to show that the fight can still happen next or they will order him to defend against mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk instead.
Usyk is a former undisputed cruiserweight champion. He reigned as the undisputed cruiserweight champion from 2018 until he vacated
his titles in 2019. Usyk was the first cruiserweight in history to hold all four major world championships—the WBA (Super), WBC, IBF and WBO titles.
After the cancellation of Joshua vs Fury match, WBO has now ordered Joshua to defend his title against Usyk.
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