Tyson Fury reveals he would be sued for $80MILLION if he avoided the Deontay Wilder trilogy and insists he doesn’t think he will EVER fight Anthony Joshua
- Tyson Fury says he would have been sued $80m if he’d avoided Deontay Wilder
- The Gypsy King will take on the American for a third time on October 9
- Fury was in talks over a summer undisputed showdown with Anthony Joshua
- But an American arbitrator ruled he was obliged to take the trilogy bout
Tyson Fury has revealed he would have been sued a whopping $80million had he avoided a trilogy bout with Deontay Wilder in search of an undisputed showdown against Anthony Joshua.
The Gypsy King had been in negotiations to fight Joshua this summer, in what would have been one of, if not the biggest British fights in history. However, those plans were derailed when an American arbitrator ruled the Brit must take on Wilder for a third time.
Fury, who will complete his trilogy with Wilder in Las Vegas on October 9, has now revealed the enormous ramifications he was facing had he chosen an alternate route.
Tyson Fury (right) has revealed he would have been sued $80million if he’d avoided a trilogy bout with Deontay Wilder (left) in search of a undisputed bout with Anthony Joshua
The Gypsy King will now take on Wilder for a third and final time in Las Vegas on October 9
‘The talk was that me and Joshua were going to fight,’ Fury said on Gary Neville’s The Overlap YouTube channel. ‘Then all of a sudden, Deontay Wilder’s put in an arbitration against me from a top judge and all the best lawyers in America, so I can’t do anything about that.
‘Fair is fair. I’m a fair man myself and if the shoe was on the other foot I’d want my third fight,’ he continued.
‘It wasn’t really my fault or Wilder’s fault why the rematch never happened. The world got turned on its head and it didn’t happen because of Covid.
‘All of a sudden, we’re in court and he won the case. The judge said, “look, fair is fair, give the lad his rematch”, and that’s it. There’s not much I can do about that.’
Fury revealed how he lost the case against Wilder in an interview with Gary Neville
The announcement that Fury would take on Wilder once more, rather than the eagerly-anticipated all-British match-up with Joshua, was met with fierce criticism.
That included from Fury’s father John, who insisted his son should have vacated his WBC belt and fought Joshua instead, describing the switch of opponents as ‘diabolical’ and insisting there are ‘a lot of leaches out there’.
However, Fury explains that Wilder’s clause was not attached to the belt, but to a third bout between the pair, insisting he would have been sued even if he vacated his title.
‘It’s not the belt, it’s contracted to me,’ Fury said. ‘It’s got nothing to do with the belt. I could do that with the belt (kick it away) and all of a sudden me and Wilder are fighting for no belt against each other.’
He continued: ‘Do you know how much the suing case was if I didn’t fight him? $80million.’
Fury believes a fight with Anthony Joshua is unlikely, claiming he and his team knew all about the arbitration case
The clash between Fury and Joshua has now been placed further in doubt, with the pair needing to overcome their respective hurdles against Wilder and Oleksandr Usyk.
Fury recently revealed his dream next five fights, which included a Joshua double-header, after defeating Wilder and then Dillian Whyte in December.
However, Fury insists he does not think a fight between the pair will ever take place, insisting Joshua and his team knew all about the arbitration case.
‘I was never optimistic about AJ happening,’ Fury said. ‘This was always going on in the background and they knew all that.
‘Eddie Hearn knew it, Joshua knew it – they all knew it. All of a sudden, it’s my fault because I’m a s***house, please.’
He continued: ‘I don’t think the fight will happen. We’ve been trying to do this fight since we were 22 years old and I’m now 33.’
The Overlap is a new YouTube channel from Gary Neville in partnership with Sky Bet.