Notebook: Fury lays into Wilder as hype begins for their 3rd heavyweight title fight
Fortuna-Diaz for interim belt; Matchroom wins bid; Quick hits
Heavyweight champion Tyson Fury said he has signed his contract for a third fight with Deontay Wilder and then wasted no time beginning to talk trash about the former world titlist.
The fight is ticketed for July 24 as a joint ESPN/Fox pay-per-view in Las Vegas as the first boxing event to take place at Allegiant Stadium, the new home of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders.
Wilder co-manager Shelly Finkel told Fight Freaks Unite that Wilder has also signed his end of the deal.
Fury, who was on hand for Saturday night’s Josh Taylor-Jose Ramirez undisputed junior welterweight championship fight at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, made the announcement during the ESPN telecast.
“It’s been a whirlwind last few months. I’ve been enjoying life and training hard and waiting for a fight for a long time,” said Fury, who was forced to give Wilder a third fight no later than Sept. 14 after losing an arbitration case related to their rematch contract. “I’m just a fighting man and just I want to fight. It doesn’t matter if it’s Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder or wherever it is, I want to fight.”
Fury was slated to face three-belt titlist and British countryman Joshua for the undisputed title on Aug. 14 in Saudi Arabia but once Wilder won the arbitration case last Monday, Fury-Joshua went down the drain.
Fury and Joshua will each have summer interim fights, Fury against Wilder and Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs), 31, against mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs), 34, of Ukraine, and if each wins their camps will attempt to reschedule the undisputed title fight later in the year.
Fury said he never considered offering Wilder money to step aside to allow the Joshua fight to go through.
“Hell no,” said Fury, who gets the lion’s share of a 60-40 split on their third fight after a 50-50 deal for the rematch. “I’ll pay him in ass whuppings. Ass whuppings is what I pay in.”
As for how the fight will go, Fury added, “I think he’ll give it a good roll of the dice because it’s his last hurrah. I’ve got his heart, his soul and mojo. Every bit of Deontay Wilder, I’ve got it right here my pocket and I’ve carried it around with me for 18 months.
“This guy is a glutton for punishment. He’s an idiot. He got absolutely dismantled and smashed to bits in our last fight and he wants that all over again. He’s telling people I cracked his skull, I injured his shoulder, I done his bicep, yet he wants to get in there with me again. It’s one of two things. He’s absolutely crazy or he’s a sucker for punishment.”
They met for the first time in December 2018 in Los Angeles and the fight was ruled a split draw after Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs), 32, outboxed Wilder for long stretches but Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs), 35, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, scored two knockdowns, one in the ninth round and a massive one in the 12th round that Fury barely survived.
The hugely hyped rematch was on Feb. 22, 2020 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on a joint ESPN/Fox pay-per-view and Fury dominated. He dropped Wilder in the third and fifth rounds and was teeing off on him in the seventh round when Wilder’s now-fired co-trainer Mark Breland threw in the towel to end the bout. Neither has fought since.
Fury said he will be even more dominant this time with Wilder.
“I’ve gotta beat up Deontay Wilder a bit better than last time because he didn’t get a good enough hiding,” Fury said. “This time I’m going to really double, double treble smash him.”
And after that he said he will then definitely face Joshua, assuming Joshua beats Usyk.
“One hundred percent,” Fury said. “AJ’s got a big mouth with no substance. It happens this year. I’m gonna deal with this mug, Deontay Wilder. I’m knocking him out cold. Then I’m gonna deal with the other guy straightaway. I just want to do a great beat down on Deontay Wilder again. I want to show him who his boss is and who he works for.”
Talking heavyweights
Given the whirlwind of things that have happened in recent days regarding the signing of Fury-Wilder III, an impending deal for Joshua-Usyk and all of the fallout from one of the craziest couple of weeks in recent heavyweight history, my pal Gareth Davies from the Telegraph in the United Kingdom and I taped a video discussing it all on Monday night. Please check the video out here:
Fortuna-Diaz for interim belt
The WBC on Monday announced that it has sanctioned the fight between Javier Fortuna (36-2-1, 25 KOs) and former junior lightweight titlist Joseph Diaz Jr. (31-1-1, 15 KOs), who is moving up in weight, for its interim lightweight title.
Fortuna and Diaz will meet on July 9 (DAZN) at the Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles in the co-feature of the card headlined by light heavyweight contender and former super middleweight titlist Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (41-0, 27 KOs) against longtime contender Sullivan Barrera (22-3, 14 KOs).
Ryan Garcia was originally scheduled to make his first interim title defense against Fortuna but recently announced that he was taking a break from boxing to address mental health issues. Following Garcia’s announcement, Fortuna promoter Sampson Lewkowicz petitioned the WBC to sanction Fortuna-Diaz for the interim belt, which it did. Garcia has been stripped by the WBC, which said in its announcement that it would “stay close to (Garcia) during his process, and the WBC Board of Governors will assess his situation once he is ready to return to the ring.”
Fortuna’s team requested the sanction because he has been denied multiple times of fighting for a WBC title through no fault of his own. He had been either ordered to face or had fights set but saw them fall through against WBC titlist Devin Haney, Luke Campbell (in a vacant title fight), Jorge Linares and now Garcia.
“In light of the fact that Javier Fortuna has not been able to compete for a WBC championship due to reasons outside his control, and based on the merits of his request, the WBC has decided to grant it,” the WBC wrote in its ruling. “Accordingly, the WBC will sanction the Javier Fortuna vs. Jo Jo Diaz bout for the WBC interim world lightweight championship. The winner will (be ordered to) fight the winner of Haney vs. Linares.”
Haney-Linares tops a DAZN card on Saturday at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
Quick hits
Matchroom Boxing on Monday won the purse bid for the fight between unified junior featherweight titlist Murodjon Akhmadaliev (9-0, 7 KOs), 26, of Uzbekistan, and mandatory challenger Ronny Rios (33-3, 16 KOs), 31, of Santa Ana, California. Minimum bid was $150,000 but during the video conference Matchroom Boxing, which promotes Akhmadaliev and was represented by attorney Shaun Palmer, offered $525,555 with a tentative date for the fight being Aug. 21 with possible locations being New York, Los Angeles and Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. The only other bid came from Robert Diaz of Golden Boy Promotions, Rios’ promoter, which offered $503,000. Akhmadaliev entitled 75 of the winning bid ($394.166.25) and Rios is entitled to 25 percent ($131,388.75).
Manager Egis Klimas announced on his social media that welterweight Fazliddin Gaibnazarov (9-1, 5 KOs), a 29-year-old southpaw and 2016 Olympic gold medalist from Uzbekistan, will face Quinton Randall (8-0, 2 KOs), 30, of Houston, on the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN+ card June 26 at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. The fight will be on the undercard of the return of former unified lightweight world champion Vasiliy Lomachenko taking on Masayoshi Nakatani.
Former bantamweight world titlist Tomoki Kameda (37-3, 20 KOs), 29, of Japan, won an eight-round decision over countryman Hironori Miyake (9-11-2, 1 KO), 32, in a featherweight fight on Saturday in Toyonaka, Japan. Kameda ended a 22-month layoff that followed a decision loss challenging then-junior featherweight titlist Rey Vargas in July 2019 in Carson, California. Although Miyake scored a flash knockdown with a right hand in the fifth round, Kameda won 79-73, 78-73 and 78-73.
Former strawweight and junior flyweight titlist Hekkie Budler (33-4, 10 KOs), 33, of South Africa, won a decision over Jonathan Almacen (7-4-2, 2 KOs), 21, of the Philippines, in a junior flyweight bout on Saturday in Johannesburg, South Africa. Budler won 118-111, 118-111 and 117-111. The fight was Budler’s fist in 2½ years.
Show and tell
One can never have too many Mike Tyson cards the way I see it. So, when Leaf recently rolled out an internet-only on-demand product for a short period and it included several top NFL draft picks as well as a few athletes from other sports, including Tyson, of course I had to buy some. They are glossy and designed like the famed inaugural 1989 Pro Set football card set. I think the Tyson card looks great. My cards arrived on Monday and have been added to my collection.
Why is there any need for Fortuna to fight anyone, never mind Diaz, for an interim belt?
After being screwed around by the WBC for over two years, and with Garcia's absence for an unknown length of time, why couldn't Fortuna be made WBC mandatory for the winner of Haney vs Linares?
IMO the Fortuna vs Diaz fight is an eliminator with a pointless trinket attached to it and is more about giving Diaz yet another opportunity rather than actually being fair to Fortuna.