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Tyson Fury believes a fourth fight with Deontay Wilder will sell well in England, where the unbeaten WBC heavyweight champion is more popular than ever.
More than 60,000 tickets have already been sold for Fury's unexpected third fight on Saturday night at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London against British foe Dereck Chisora. Fury-Wilder IV would be more marketable than many other matches in Fury's birthplace due to Wilder's pulverizing power and their strong animosity for one another.
Fury, on the other hand, is sick of fighting Wilder and believes he has defeated him three times: once on points, once by technical knockout while Wilder was still standing, and once by savage knockout. Their first fight, a 12-rounder in December 2018, was declared a split draw, which led to a rematch in February 2020, which Fury won by seventh-round technical knockout.
Despite this, the 34-year-old Manchester native sees no incentive to fight Wilder a fourth time until the WBC compels him to.
The WBC scheduled an elimination battle between Wilder and Andy Ruiz Jr. at its annual meeting in late October. The victor of that 12-round fight, in which Wilder (43-2-1, 42 KOs), the WBC's top-ranked contender, will face second-ranked Ruiz (35-2, 22 KOs), will become Fury's mandatory challenger.
Wilder and Ruiz are set to fight in a pay-per-view main event sometime next spring. Fury hopes Ruiz wins because a mandatory rematch with the former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO champion would give Fury the chance to face a different opponent.
“I would like to see Andy Ruiz knock his motherf------- ass out,” Fury told BoxingScene.com. “Because I’m sick of looking at Deontay Wilder. I need another man to train for. I need another guy to fight. We fought three times already. I think the guy’s a piece of sh!t as a person. I don’t like him. He’s an excuse-maker. He gets beat by a better man on the night, and he can’t take it. So, he’s gotta think of a million reasons why he lost. So, he’s not a great sportsman, in my opinion, and I hope Ruiz knocks him out cold.”
A giddy Fury laughed, but agreed that the hard-hitting Wilder is more likely to knock Ruiz out. Fury was amazed by Wilder's early, destructive nature, noting that no opponent had ever done that to Finland's Helenius (31-4, 20 KOs).
If Fury defeats Chisora in their third fight, he will be far more interested in meeting unbeaten Ukrainian southpaw Oleksandr Usyk than Wilder a fourth time. And if Wilder beats Ruiz, Fury would prefer to watch his rival battle Anthony Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs), interim WBO champ Joe Joyce (15-0, 14 KOs), and finally Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs), who won the IBF, IBO, WBA, and WBO belts from England's Joshua 14 months ago.
“Styles make fights and, you know, different fighters have different styles,” Fury said. “We’ll see what happens with all these great matchups. But one thing I know is there are some great matchups to be had in the heavyweight division right now. I’d like to see Usyk and Wilder. I’d like to see Joshua and Wilder. I’d like to see Wilder fight them all. I’d like to see Wilder have a go at these guys. I wanna see if they can do any damage to ‘The Bronze Bomber.’ ”
Since then, Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs) has knocked out England's Dillian Whyte (29-3, 19 KOs) in the sixth round of his most recent bout, which drew a record attendance of nearly 94,000 to a sold-out Wembley Stadium in London on April 23. The confident Fury, a former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO champion, is a 20-1 favorite to defeat London's Chisora (33-12, 23 KOs), who has already fallen twice to Fury.