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The third heavyweight title fight between WBC champion Tyson Fury and ex-champion Deontay Wilder will be on July 24 in Las Vegas, sources confirmed to Yahoo Sports. ESPN’s Ben Baby originally reported the agreement. Contracts are agreed upon but not signed.
Their first fight, on Dec. 1, 2018 in Los Angeles, was a split draw. The second fight, on Feb. 22, 2020, in Las Vegas, was won by Fury by seventh-round TKO.
Their third fight will most likely be at T-Mobile Arena, though the MGM Grand and Allegiant Stadium are still in the running. Allegiant Stadium was the preferred site, but because of the cost of using the venue, T-Mobile has now become the front-runner.
The deal caps a wild four days in boxing’s heavyweight division. On Sunday, Fury announced on social media that he’d be fighting Anthony Joshua on Aug. 14 in Saudi Arabia for the undisputed heavyweight championship.
But on Monday, an arbiter ruled that a clause in the contract between Fury and Wilder for their second fight was valid and that Fury had to give Wilder a rematch by Sept. 15.
A source told Yahoo Sports that the contract for the Fury-Joshua fight had a clause in it alerting all participants that there was an ongoing arbitration which could impact the ability of the fight to be made.
Top Rank, which promotes Fury, and MTK Global, which manages him, very quickly decided against paying Wilder step-aside money to allow the Joshua fight to go forward. Instead, they decided to fulfill their obligation to Wilder as quickly as possible to make it possible for Fury-Joshua to occur this year in the event Fury wins on July 24.
Wilder was angry at his assistant trainer, Mark Breland, for throwing in the towel in the seventh round in the second fight. He fired Breland and has hired one-time opponent Malik Scott to replace him.
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