Just when we thought we were finally on our way to an undisputed heavyweight title unification between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, an arbitration judge ruled that Deontay Wilder is still owed his third fight against Fury, which must take place before September 15.
While the ruling also paved way for potential delay to Fury-Wilder III (which would require a step aside fee paid to Wilder), Top Rank promoter Bob Arum tells ESPN he has no intention of paying Wilder to step aside, instead preferring to just deal with Wilder now and punt a Joshua fight to later in the year.
“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.”
With Arum representing Fury this obviously looks like an abrupt halt to plans for a summer Fury-Joshua fight in Saudi Arabia which carried a tremendous site fee. Fury’s last fight came against Wilder in February 2020, when he stopped Wilder in seven rounds to gain the WBC title.