Tyson Fury vs Deontey Wilder III Rescheduled for 9 October 2021

The WBC Heavyweight Championship bout between Tyson Fury and Deontey Wilder is postponed after Fury suffered from COVID-19, as per ESPN.

Fury and Wilder clashed for the first time in December 2018. The fight ended in a disputed draw, and Wilder was able to retain the title. The rematch took place in February 2020 where Fury scored two knockdowns before Wilder’s corner threw in the towel in the seventh round.

Fury was looking to move ahead to face Anthony Joshua after winning the title, but Wilder triggered the rematch clause signed in the contract for their second bout.

The third fight was initially attempted to take place in October 2020, but COVID-19 prevented Top Rank and PBC to stage the fight with a full audience. The next attempt was made to stage the fight in December 2020, but the involvement of both ESPN and FOX PPV services left very few PPV dates as the option.

The fight was finally scheduled for 24 July at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV. However, Fury was tested positive on 6 July and only tested negative again earlier this week. The postponement became imminent with a lot riding of the PPV and lack of preparation on the WBC Heavyweight Champion’s part.

Top Rank and PBC are co-promoting this fight with ESPN+ and FOX PPV working as the streaming carriers. The second fight made $17 million at the gate, a record for Nevada for Heavyweight fights. The PPV also had around 850k buys in the United States and a further 300k buys internationally.

The undercard has three more heavyweight fights which all are also moved to 9 October now. Frank Sanchez vs Efe Ajagba, Robert Helenius vs Adam Kownacki, and Jared Anderson vs Vladimir Tereshkin, have all been moved to 9 October’s card.

Keep tuned for more updates from the boxing world.