Sources say COVID-19 outbreak at Camp Tyson Fury threatens fight against Deontay Wilder

[ad_1]

12:13 AM ET

Mike Coppinger ESPN

Sources told ESPN Thursday that there has been an outbreak of COVID-19 at the Tyson Fury camp, which will inevitably lead to the postponement of the July 24 heavyweight championship fight against Deontay Wilder.

No official decision has been made yet on whether the fight, which is scheduled to take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and broadcast on ESPN + PPV, will go ahead as planned.

“We continue to monitor the health status of Tyson and his team, and the event status has not changed to date,” a statement from Top Rank said Thursday.

The fight is a co-show with Fox, and this network has Manny Pacquiao-Errol Spence Jr. PPV is set for August 21, so Fury-Wilder 3 will likely be moved to September, sources told ESPN.

“It was a crazy rollercoaster about this fight,” Fury said at a press conference last month in Los Angeles to promote the fight. “I always say, you don’t fight someone until you’re in the ring opposite them.”

Fury and Wilder have met twice already. The first fight came in December 2018 and ended in a disputed draw. Despite suffering a knockout — including one in the final round — most observers believe Fury deserved the nod.

The “Gypsy King” left no doubt in their February 2020 rematch, scoring two self-defeating goals en route to a seventh-round stoppage after Wilder’s Mark Berland threw in the towel.

Neither Fury, 32, nor Wilder have appeared in the ring since. Wilder, 35, exercised his contractual right to a third fight after that, but the pandemic prevented Top Rank (Fury’s promoter) and PBC from organizing the fight in front of a full audience.

Gate’s second bout generated $16916,440—a Nevada state record for a heavyweight title fight. Sources told ESPN that the pay-per-view, priced at $79.99, has generated nearly 900,000 purchases.

Top Rank and PBC attempted to stage the match in December after October was deemed unfeasible due to COVID restrictions, but the unexpected resumption of the college football season left few PPV dates available in the last month of 2020 with two networks signed up.

Then, Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) and his team deemed the rematch clause expired and pushed forward negotiations for a massive battle with fellow England teammate Anthony Joshua who would be crowned the undisputed champion. The two sides agreed to a deal in May, with Fury announcing on May 16 that the fighting would take place on August 14 in Saudi Arabia.

In the background, the independent arbitrator, Daniel Weinstein, was deciding whether Fury actually owed Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) a third fight. Senior Chairman Bob Arum was impeached, as was his stepson, Senior Chairman Todd Dubuffe. So was PBC founder Al Haymon, director of Wilder Shelly Finkel, and PBC CEO Bruce Binkow. Fury and Wilder also gave testimonials.

On May 17, a day after Fury announced that he would meet Joshua in August, Weinstein ruled that he owed Wilder another fight.

“I didn’t feel in any way about Fury trying to negotiate another fight,” Wilder said at last month’s press conference in Los Angeles. “We knew we were right and we knew they couldn’t run.”

Now it seems likely that Wilder will have to wait a little longer for his chance of revenge.

.

[ad_2]