BoxingScene.com has learned that 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 for either a 60-40 split that would favor Wilder in a WBC purse bid or a less profitable fight against another opponent. 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.”
What we’re likely to get now that Fury has signed a co-promotional agreement with Arum and ESPN is interim fights for Fury and Wilder before they revisit this rematch again later this year.
Arum told BoxingScene.com and other 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.
BoxingScene.com has been informed that 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.
