Fury walked away from 50-50 split with Wilder, Arum wants Wilder to sign 5-fight deal with him

Bob Arum has basically killed the Wilder-Fury rematch.

Arum wants Wilder to sign a five-fight deal with Top Rank. And, even if Wilder did sign, Arum wants Fury and Wilder to fight a NUMBER of other people first before their rematch.

Thanks for jumping in at the last minute to ruin everything, BOB.

What a jerk.

Apparently, Fury wasn't as interested in fighting Wilder again so quickly as he led on.


Here's a summary of Keith Idec's report on the scene which spells it out.

Idec says Fury walked away from a 50-50 split to fight Wilder in a Showtime Pay-Per-View main event May 18 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Fury had that 50-50 contract in his hands for more than a week, but never returned it.

As it turned out, his promoter, Frank Warren, was working with Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc. on a co-promotional agreement and negotiating with Al Haymon, Wilder’s adviser, and Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza at the same time. Fury, Warren, Arum and ESPN stunned virtually everyone in boxing by announcing their new deal early Monday morning.

Two days later, in a Wednesday interview with The Ring’s Mike Coppinger, the entertaining Englishman definitely didn’t come across as someone who wants Wilder next.

“I’m not too sure,” Fury said. “I’m not a political person. The promoters do what promoters do. … There’s not much I can do about it, is there? … I signed a contract now. Whatever fights they get, they get.”

Arum told news outlets this week that Top Rank wants Wilder-Fury next. What the Hall-of-Fame promoter didn’t mention is that the accompanying contract his company offered Wilder on Wednesday is for five fights.

The first fight of that proposed deal for Wilder would require him to fight someone other than Fury on ESPN+, the streaming service Arum’s company is helping ESPN push.

Wilder would be paid handsomely to fight an undetermined opponent next on ESPN+ because Top Rank’s budget for fights on ESPN+ is bigger than its budget for fights on ESPN.

A Wilder-Fury rematch is part of that five-fight offer, yet that deal could require Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KOs) to take multiple fights before facing Fury (27-0-1, 19 KOs) a second time in an ESPN Pay-Per-View main event.

While Wilder did make it known Monday that he isn’t contractually tied to Showtime or any other network, he also appreciates all that Showtime has done to build his brand and his bank account in recent years. Furthermore, Haymon has a three-year deal with Showtime to provide Premier Boxing Champions content for that premium cable network and no active fighter in his huge stable has consistently drawn greater viewership for Showtime than the hard-hitting WBC heavyweight champion.

And as much as Arum claims Wilder, Haymon and co-managers Shelly Finkel and Jay Deas need the promotional muscle the vast reach of ESPN can provide, that wouldn’t necessarily require Wilder to sign with Top Rank, either. ESPN promoted the first Wilder-Fury fight on all of its platforms – everything from SportsCenter to “First Take,” with Max Kellerman and Stephen A. Smith – throughout the week that led up to their dubious draw December 1 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

ESPN, as the most prominent sports network in the United States, is going to cover and promote Wilder-Fury II whether it’s distributed by Showtime, ESPN or both.

“[Wilder-Fury II] has to happen and it has to happen on the terms that make sense for us, for the fighters, for ESPN,” Arum said Monday.

Wilder’s back-and-forth fight with Luis Ortiz peaked at 1.3 million viewers on Showtime last March 3 from Barclays Center. Showtime, which has roughly 27 million subscribers, is capable when it comes to an intriguing fighter like Wilder, of drawing better ratings for boxing than ESPN.

The highest peak audience any of Top Rank’s three shows on ESPN in 2019 was 1.02 million viewers February 2. Top Rank’s most recent ESPN telecast, headlined by Jose Ramirez and Jose Zepeda on February 10, averaged 655,000 viewers.

Idec said a Wilder fight on ESPN clearly would draw better viewership than what’s mentioned above. But there’s no way to quantify just how many of the approximate three million subscribers of ESPN+ would watch him fight on that streaming service because ESPN doesn’t release those figures.

What Arum also ignores is that Showtime is owned by CBS – literally the most-watched network on American television. CBS could promote Wilder-Fury II on a network available in approximately 118 million American homes, roughly 32 million more than ESPN. While contractually partnering with Top Rank and ESPN certainly could help the Wilder-Fury rematch do bigger business, it’s not the only way to significantly out-do the reported 325,000 pay-per-view buys their first fight produced.

Idec says maybe Fury is content fighting Oscar Rivas (26-0, 18 KOs), a Colombian heavyweight contender Top Rank promotes. Former WBO champion Joseph Parker (25-2, 19 KOs), whose promoter, David Higgins, has reached out this week to Top Rank regarding the New Zealand native’s willingness to fight Fury next, is a possibility, too.

Top Rank also has a co-promotional agreement with Bulgaria’s Kubrat Pulev (26-1, 13 KOs). Pulev is the IBF’s No. 1 challenger for Anthony Joshua, however, and Top Rank apparently plans to guide him into position for a purse bid for that fight if Pulev wins a March 23 bout against Romania’s Bogdan Dinu (18-1, 14 KOs) in Costa Mesa, California.

Regardless, Fury now must pay two promoters, not one, out of however much he’ll make for lesser fights. There’s obviously also the possibility he could lose one of those fights and ruin the momentum the rematch has now.

The WBC’s impending purse bid for the Wilder-Fury rematch doesn’t figure to make an impact in this mess, either.

“It doesn’t factor into it at all,” Arum told Idec on Monday. “The WBC wants the fight to happen. Good luck to them.”

 

Looks like Tyson Fury will spend 2019 fighting on ESPN+ in the U.S. against whoever Bob Arum can get to sign with Top Rank.

That sucks.

Oh well. I hope Wilder and Joshua both win in May ... and I hope they fight in the fall.

Looks like Tyson Fury's only appearances at heavyweight title fights this year will be sitting at ringside asking people to "hold him back."

 

Oscar Rivas seems like a safe bet. He just beat Bryant Jennings. He's signed with Top Rank.

Arum also has Kubrat Pulev.

So, Rivas and Pulev would be the likely choices. Not exactly Wilder II.

 

I agree. Fury got in great shape and maintained it because the plan was to fight Wilder a couple times.

With no Wilder fight on the horizon, and fighting someone like Rivas (who Bryant Jennings was outboxing), I think it'll be hard for Fury to maintain his weight loss.

Fury has opened the door for Wilder and Joshua to come to an agreement, and if they sign to fight each other, that'll be for multiple fights/immediate rematch clauses.

If Fury doesn't fight Wilder now, Fury may not get a world title fight until late 2020 at the earliest ... unless he gets in line for the WBA 'regular' belt.

Just dumb.

 

I agree. He's 87. He'll likely be dead or incapacitated before Fury has five more ESPN+ fights.

And what's the point of fighting a handful of Top Rank guys on ESPN for a couple years to get to a title shot ... WHEN FURY HAD A TITLE SHOT and a 50-50 purse split on PPV set for May?

Arum keeps talking about George Foreman. Fury doesn't need to go on a barnstorming tour like Foreman did to convince people he deserved a title shot. Fury HAD ONE LINED UP FOR THIS MAY.

Wilder and Fury could fight three, four or five times ... and become historically famous fighting each other.

Throwing Fury in with guys like Rivas for the next two years isn't going to make Fury BIGGER like fighting Wilder again would.

I just think it's ridiculous. Warren screwed up. Fury screwed up. And Arum is just a jerk.

The two old timers - Warren and Arum - blow everything up.