Tyson Fury’s third meeting with Deontay Wilder has apparently been postponed until October 9 after the WBC champion tested positive for Covid-19. An official announcement is expected later today.
Fury was set to recommence hostilities with fierce rival Wilder at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on July 24 before the event was plunged into chaos by a Covid-19 outbreak in the Gypsy King’s camp with multiple team members testing positive.
According to Mike Coppinger of ESPN.com and Dan Rafael of WorldBoxingNews.net, Fury is among a number of people in the champion’s camp to have contracted the virus, leaving no option but a postponement until a projected new date of October 9. Rafael revealed that Fury’s assistant coach Andy Lee, sparring partner Joseph Parker and team member Isaac Lowe have also tested positive. Fury, who has reportedly had one Covid-19 jab, is apparently too ill to train, according to WBN’s Rafael.
The regrettable delay will add further doubt to a potential undisputed heavyweight title clash between Fury and WBA Super, WBO and IBF champion Anthony Joshua, which was cancelled in May after an arbitrator ruled that the Gypsy King must honour a previously contracted trilogy fight with Wilder.
Joshua is now scheduled to meet WBO No.1 contender Oleksandr Usyk on September 25 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Any bout with Fury won’t happen now until 2022 at the earliest.
Fury drew with Wilder in December 2018 before an emphatic seven-round victory in their February 2020 return.
Main image: Mikey Williams/Top Rank.