By Cassandra Cousineau of LVSportsBiz.com
The wheels have at least been set in motion for a potential mega heavyweight boxing event between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on July 24.
“I’ll confirm that we have had discussions with TopRank,” Raiders President Marc Badain told LVSportsBiz.com Tuesday.
This was after a wild 24 hours seemingly put an undisputed heavyweight title unification between Fury and Anthony Joshua on ice.
On Monday, Daniel Weinstein, the arbitrator presiding over the Fury vs Wilder rematch dispute, determined Wilder was entitled to a rematch per his contract clause subsequent to the former WBC Champ losing to Fury in Feb. 2020.
After fighting to a split draw in their first meeting in December 2018, Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) dominated the former WBC champion (42-1-1, 41 KOs) in a match held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, knocking him down twice before earning a brutal seventh-round TKO victory.
With Weinstein’s ruling, Fury and his team have to either decide to make the fight, or negotiate a “step aside” agreement with Wilder. Bob Arum, Top Rank Boxing founder and Fury’s US promoter, told ESPN he has no intention of paying Wilder to step aside to allow Fury to fight Joshua instead.
“We’re not paying Wilder to step aside. It’s better to get rid of him and go about our business. We can make the Fury-Joshua fight for November or December.”
The trilogy was originally targeted for the same venue on Dec. 19 of 2020, when Arum said he was hopeful for a crowd between 10,000-15,000 for the fight. However, once negotiations slowed, Fury opted to pursue the Joshua match. Recent reports have estimated a Fury vs Joshua fight to be worth an estimated $155 million site fee in Saudi Arabia.