Former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder 42-2-1 (41) will be gunning for the big fights in 2022 following his 11th round knockout loss to Tyson Fury 31-0-1 (22) at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday night.
In a wild brawl that featured five knockdowns, reigning WBC champion Fury ultimately prevailed by knockout when he decked Wilder for the third time.
Wilder was down in rounds three, 10 and 11. Fury found himself on the canvas twice in the fourth round. At the time of the stoppage Fury was leading on all three judges’ scorecards 94-92, 95-91 and 95-92.
The bout was the third between Fury and Wilder. In their first encounter in December 2019, Fury was down twice late in the fight. The bout was ruled a split draw. In the rematch in February last year Fury dominated, putting Wilder down twice before the contest was stopped in the seventh when the towel came in from the American’s corner.
Despite back-to-back knockout losses to Fury, Wilder’s team says he will be seeking more high profile fight in the middle of next year.
One potential option is former WBA, WBO and IBF champion Anthony Joshua 24-2 (22) who lost his titles to Ukrainian southpaw and former undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk 19-0 (13) late last month.
Joshua has enacted the rematch clause in his contract and will likely face Usyk again in the first quarter of 2022.
It is a fight that Wilder’s co-manager Shelly Finkel will be watching with interest.
“My gut says [Wilder will go after] the big fights. It’s not on the drawing board now, but he would love to get Fury back again,” Finkel told The Sun.
“But again, it’s early and we have to get through Usyk and Joshua and see a couple of other possibilities. It’s a massive fight [Wilder vs Joshua], no matter what happens in the Joshua-Usyk fight.
“And I’m not sure that Usyk, even with his great skills, will be able to deal with the size of Fury.”
Wilder will be heading into surgery next week to fix a broken hand he sustained in the trilogy fight against Fury.
“Deontay broke his right hand behind the third knuckle and he has to have that fixed next week. He has to have surgery, the knuckle is okay, it’s the bone behind the knuckle that broke. He’s sore but he was okay, he was home yesterday,” Finkel said.
“He’s healing and at this point, if everything is okay. After the hand surgery he’ll probably look to enter the ring mid next year, like April or May.”
Meanwhile, Usyk’s promoter Alexander Krassyuk says his boxer would have the measure of either Fury or Wilder.
“Well, Fury won and he deserved the victory. The first thing I didn’t like was the shape of Wilder. He made this extra weight which didn’t make him look good,” Krassyuk told SunSport.
“He looked awful, really, really awful because he couldn’t make it with his body, he didn’t get used to that extra weight and he didn’t feel good. In the fourth round he was already done and survived the rest of the fight till near the end.
“But Fury looked fresh though he had some extra weight on his body, he performed better movements and his conditioning was much better. But I didn’t like the way he won because Wilder, let’s say, was ‘dead’ after the fourth round, it took Fury more than six rounds to finish the fight so he didn’t try to box but tried to knock him out, to severely damage him.
“It definitely wasn’t a boxing match. Coming back to Usyk, both guys – Wilder and Fury – in the shape they performed in the fight are a sweet dessert for Usyk because none of them performed with boxing skills.
“If Usyk shows his technique, his style of technique I don’t think either Fury or Wilder can do anything serious to Usyk.”
