Tyson Fury negotiating settlement with Deontay Wilder, Frank Warren confirms

Frank Warren has confirmed that talks are under way to reach a settlement with Deontay Wilder that would prevent Tyson Fury from needing to take on the American in a trilogy bout this year – a contest that would threaten Fury’s planned fight with Anthony Joshua.

Fury and Wilder fought to a controversial split draw in December 2018, before the Briton stopped the ‘Bronze Bomber’ in the seventh round of their rematch in February 2020 to win the WBC heavyweight title.

A clause in the contract for the pair’s second bout guaranteed the loser a rematch – should they desire it – and it was declared in an arbitration verdict on Monday that Fury must fight Wilder again by 15 September.

As such, Fury’s long-awaited fight with compatriot Anthony Joshua, the WBA, IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight champion, is under threat.

That meeting is expected to take place in Saudi Arabia on 14 August, and Fury’s promoter Warren has said that negotiations have begun to bypass the Wilder fight and ensure an all-British heavyweight unification contest takes place as planned.

“The arbitrator ruled in Deontay Wilder’s favour and that means he has ordered the rematch to take place,” Warren told the Daily Mail on Tuesday.

“We obviously have to try to reach some accommodation with Wilder. If we can’t then Tyson has got to make a decision on whether he wants to fight him or not.

“But at the moment we have to deal with Wilder one way or another. We will work hard to make it happen to keep the [Joshua] fight on.

“[Wilder] will have to be satisfied. We will have to satisfy him, and if it is a settlement he will want paying for it, no doubt about that.”