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By: Hans Themistode
With Tyson Fury being forced to pull out of his third showdown against Deontay Wilder due to the British native contracting COVID-19, both sides have reportedly settled on a new date.
On October 9th, Wilder and Fury will meet for presumably, the final time. Their heavyweight clash is set to take place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada and will be presented on a joint Pay-Per-View on ESPN+ and FOX Sports.
After their first clash resulted in a draw in December of 2018, Fury made sure the judges would be obsolete the second time around. Despite being considered the underdog, Fury ran through the Alabama native. He dropped his man several times over before ultimately forcing the corner of Wilder to throw in the towel. In the process, Fury relieved him of his WBC title.
From there, Wilder enacted his mandated rematch clause. However, due to COVID-19 and Wilder recovering from several injuries, their contest faced several hold-ups. In an attempt to bypass Wilder altogether, team Fury began negotiating an undisputed showdown against unified titlist, Anthony Joshua.
But while all systems appeared to be a go, Wilder enlisted the help of arbitrator Daniel Weinstein. The former WBC belt holder would go on to win their arbitration dispute and was granted an immediate rematch. Originally, the two were scheduled to face off on July 24th. But, with Fury reportedly testing positive for COVID-19, their contest was forced to move several months back.
Regardless of his positive results and being made to sit sequestered on the sidelines until he is COVID-19 free, Fury is still displaying an enormous amount of hubris for their third clash.
“I wanted nothing more than to smash the ‘Big Dosser’ on July 24. But I guess the beating will have to wait,” Fury said. “Make no mistake, I will be back and better than ever. We will fight Oct. 9, and I will knock him spark out!”
Agreeing wholeheartedly with Fury’s assessment, is Hall of Fame promoter, Frank Warren. While he could choose to be apoplectic about the entire situation, he has instead decided to look on the bright side.
“I’m glad that we could all agree on a new date quickly for Tyson to defend his title,” said Warren. “Tyson is a fighting man and I know how frustrated he is that he can’t compete this month. It’s such a shame to lose a fight of this magnitude to COVID. That said, the extra time he gets to prepare is just going to ensure he’s bigger and better than ever before – I’ve never been more certain that Tyson is going to deliver a spectacular performance and remain the number one Heavyweight on the planet.”
