Deontay Wilder

WAR OF WORDS: WILDER CLAIMS THAT FURY IS GETTING BEATEN UP IN SPARRING SESSIONS

Mikey Williams/Top Rank

Tyson Fury is due to complete his trilogy of fights against Deontay Wilder on October 9, but all is not going to plan, according to Wilder.

The pair have already shared a controversial draw; DAZN reports both felt they had won the first encounter, although neutrals felt perhaps the self-proclaimed “Gypsy King” had done enough to take the title. Instead, a rematch got scheduled, and this time Fury was victorious.

That set Fury on course for a unification fight with fellow Brit Anthony Joshua, a fight Ladbrokes is calling the one everyone is waiting for. Sadly, they might not get to see it at all. Despite a two-fight deal being agreed upon by Eddie Hearn, both fighters have significant obstacles to overcome before meeting each other.

The current WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and IBO Heavyweight champion, Joshua, must overcome Oleksandr Usyk to ensure he remains a viable contender for Fury to face. The WBC and lineal Heavyweight champion, Fury, must overcome Wilder in a third and potentially final fight.

If Wilder is to be believed, Fury is not in the best shape for their rematch, which has already been rescheduled from July due to illness in Fury’s camp.

“I’m ready. I hope they are ready. I hope they have their priorities in line,” said Wilder (via the PBC Podcast). “Their game plan, how they are going to approach the fight. I know he wasn’t doing well in camp. The young guys were piecing him up.”

Fury is known to have used Michael Hunter, Christian Thun, Jared Anderson and Efe Ajagba in preparation for the third fight in July, and one assumes they are also his opponents as he prepares for the Wilder encounter. If things are not going well, it could mean victory for Wilder and a chance for him to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion of the world since Lennox Lewis and the first US fighter since Riddick Bowe in 1992.

Wilder further stoked the fire by adding his preparations were going according to plan. “Sparring has been amazing. I can’t say names but just know there have been a lot of people on the canvas,” adding fans would see “a reinvented Deontay Wilder.”

“In the time off we have done nothing but work, work, work. Even when my body rested, my mind was still at it. I’m a king. When a king falls he has to strategise and get back up. There is no point in moping, sitting back. You’ve got to pick yourself up, make yourself and the people around you stronger.”

He will certainly need to be stronger, having suffered a TKO in the seventh round of the one-sided rematch at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada. His opponent blitzed him with a powerful display of punching back in February 2020 with CBS even going as far as to say the US fighter was ‘battered from pillar to post’. Fury is still undefeated with the only blemish on his record being the controversial draw.

The world’s eyes will be on this bout, which should present the victor with a chance to become the first new undisputed champion of the world of the current century. By doing that, they write their names in history, as nothing is won or lost in sparring, despite what Wilder claims.

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