Tyson Fury has nailed his colours to the mast in terms of a potential heavyweight showdown between Deontay Wilder and Andy Ruiz Jr.
The WBC world champion in the sport’s premier division is in the process of negotiating an all-British clash against Anthony Joshua.
Fury, who was called out by WBA Super, IBF, IBO and WBO world champion Oleksandr Usyk in the wake of his rematch win over the aforementioned Joshua, had been set for an all-the-marbles confrontation against the Ring Magazine champion before the end of the year.
But Usyk asked to sit out until after Christmas to nurse a number of niggles suffered during his rematch against ‘AJ’ at the Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia, leading ‘The Gypsy King’ to throw the former two-time unified global ruler a lifeline.
The WBC, however, while revealing that Fury is in the voluntary stage of his title reign, has mandated a clash between Andy Ruiz Jr. and Deontay Wilder, providing he can get past his next opponent – Robert Helenius.
And Fury has told the Ring Magazine exactly how he sees a fight between the pair playing out, making it clear that he would prefer Ruiz to get the victory but feels it would only be a matter of time before Wilder lands one of his bombs to close the show.
“Well, considering the fact that I don’t like Wilder and I do like Andy, I’d wholeheartedly want Andy Ruiz to batter him.
However, Wilder is a dangerous man and I don’t think Ruiz is slick enough to avoid a punch for 12 rounds.
Andy was being hit clean by the 40-whatever-year-old [Ortiz].
Wilder is always going to land on all these heavyweights, especially the heavy ones, just like he did Ortiz and all the rest.”
Wilder returns to the ring on October 15 against Finland’s Helenius at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, while Ruiz Jr. has a rest period having knocked down former two-time world title challenger Luis Ortiz three times last weekend en route to a points win.
Fury went on to predict how Joshua would also fare against Wilder:
“Wilder is always going to land on all these heavyweights, especially the heavy ones, just like he did Ortiz and all the rest. It took Joshua seven rounds to break down Dominic Breazeale. Wilder? It took him one punch.
I would back Wilder to beat Anthony Joshua. I back him to beat any of them except me.
Deontay Wilder, even though he’s a piece of shit in my opinion, is still the second-best heavyweight in the world. He’ll land the thunder punch. He landed it on me. We had 10 knockdowns in three fights.
‘The Gypsy King’ rules this heavyweight division. Everyone does what I say and I’ve earned that right. I’ve stayed undefeated for 14 years. I’ve taken on the hardest f***ing challenges possible.
I’ve taken out one of the longest reigning champions in history [Wladimir Klitschko] and the biggest puncher in history [Wilder].
All I’ve got to do is set about this middleweight. And do you know what they’re going to say when I win? ‘Oh, he was too small, he was never going to beat Fury!’ They’re already saying it.”
While Fury against Usyk for all the belts is the ultimate goal, it seems a fight between Fury and Joshua – which was originally signed for last year before Fury was forced out of it in favour of the trilogy clash against Wilder – is moving closer and closer by the day.