If its 99% a done deal why haven't they announced it yet? I still think its all smoke and mirrors, huge risk for Warren. If it is a dupe to build publicity there is gonna be a lot of red faces from certain boxing fans. If it is legit then good, but IMO a mistake by Fury's side.
I don't know but it will probably happen. People might underestimate how much any heavyweight fighter outside of AJ can potentially generate. Certainly AJ is by far the biggest star, but the whole division is coming alive (and credit is due to AJ and Hearn for building the interest in the division in the UK, and credit due to Tyson Fury for opening up the division back in 2015). People were saying Fury can't draw but his sold out an arena and attracting huge numbers of TV viewers for his fight with Seferi, which is his only fight since beating Wlad. The money for Wilder-Fury is there. EVERY boxing fan is talking about it. Everyone here on this forum would probably pay to see it, and casual fans are talking about it already.
If Wilder beats Fury his profile increases loads and he can negotiate stronger with Hearn, probably. But if Fury wins, Fury's hand is even stronger than Wilder's would be, because he's the British fighter who went to Germany and dethroned Wlad, went away and then came back and went to America to beat the guy who AJ "didn't want to face". AJ would absolutely have no choice but to face Fury or lose all credibility to his historical legacy. It doesn't matter how many fans he has, the record books would show Fury casts a huge shadow over his claim to be champion.
It aint gonna happen, at least Wilder and Fury gets some attention for their NeXT fight..Which I assume was the real reason for all this talk....
Wilder's track record inspires doubt, but he did get in the ring with Ortiz, which seems like an even bigger risk than rusty Fury. On the other hand, Fury is so exceptional that it's possible he could be in good shape by December... If he's in shape and uses the style he used vrs. Klitschko.....that's a tough fight for Wilder. It all depends on the money methinks. If the payday Wilder would get from this fight is comparable to the payday he'd get fighting Joshua, there's no good reason for him not to take it. If it goes down I think Wilder will find a way to land something big. But it would be an incredible historic moment if Fury somehow pulled off the upset.
As a fan...beating Povetkin is a key legacy building fight. He's a threat and there could be dicey moments in the fight but I don't see him knocking down Joshua. Povetkin might do a bit better than Parker...or he might get overwhelmed early trying to take the fight to Joshua. Joshua's team wouldn't take this fight if they suspected Joshua was losing intensity/focus.
I think Povetkin is high risk / low reward. Wilder and Fury are the key legacy building fights, not Povetkin. Wilder holds the last piece of the alphabet puzzle and Fury is the lineal champ. That's legacy right there.
Povetkin is low risk/high reward. Jenner will still his millions that he'd have milked off from his trump like casual groupies, beating a former roided senior citizen into a pulp, and at the same time serves to keeps the Bronze Bomber away for another year. I've broken down the fight already and it is a a straight forward beat down routine job to make Jenner shine and keep the hype going before the inevitable cash out with either Wilder or Fury and then it's on to the next slave for Hearn to buck break.