Tyson Fury Deontay Wilder third fight likely delayed until 2021

The long delayed third fight between WBC Heavyweight Champ, Tyson Fury, and former champ, Deontay Wilder, will have to wait a little longer. This, according to promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank Boxing, who revealed Wednesday that the proposed date of the trilogy fight (December 19th) no longer works for the television partners in the pay per view.

Arum spoke with ESPN and made clear that they would like to hold the fight in Las Vegas, but the bigger issue is college football moving their scheduled championship games back two weeks to that Saturday and the NFL being scheduled to play two games on that day, as well,

Fury-Wilder III moving off Dec.19; new date TBA… #boxing https://t.co/yhyGJ13o9D
via @ESPN App https://t.co/c1OMWR8dtL

— Steve Kim (@StevESPNKim) September 30, 2020

Arum told ESPN’s Steve Kim about the issues/delay,

“We’re moving off because there’s five conference championship games that day and night, plus two NFL games,” Arum said. “So we can’t go with the 19th; we’re looking at other dates right now because ESPN advised us, and Fox advised the PBC [which promotes Wilder].”

Arum said it could be staged, “a little earlier in December.”

“We’re looking at the schedule — PBC, Fox, ESPN and us — to pick a date,” he said. 

The college championship games (three to be televised all day by ESPN and a fourth by Fox Sports) were originally set for Saturday, December 5th, but have been delayed to Covid 19 and rescheduling. Also, one of the NFL games that Arum referenced may be a night game on that date on Fox, as well.

ESPN and Fox Sports combined for the joint pay per view in the U.S. on both outlets earlier this year.

As we have written previously, promoter Arum and Top Rank Boxing have been negotiating with Nevada officials about potentially using Allegiant Stadium, the home of the Raiders, for Fury-Wilder III, Saturday night December 19th.

The Raiders are scheduled to host the L.A. Chargers on Thursday night December 17th and that left a solid 40 hour or so window to get the facility ready for the mega-fight and have at least 10,000 fans socially distanced attend.

The Raiders are also scheduled to play Sunday home games the previous two weekends on December 6th and 13th, which would make having a Saturday night fight there almost impossible, logistically.

All sides seem intent on Vegas being the site, and that’s where Fury captured the WBC belt with his dominant 7th round stoppage of Wilder in February.

While Arum hinted to ESPN that the fight could be earlier, the most likely scenario would be to hold the fight in January. However, that could get tricky, because the Raiders could advance to the NFL playoffs and perhaps, have to use Allegiant Stadium on weekends, then, too.

It’s likely that the fighters, Top Rank, PBC, and their television partners will have several scenarios to go over and pick one for the bout to happen. But, to be safe and avoid football, it will probably be January.