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Home » Warren hopeful on Wilder v Fury II in 2019 despite Arum doubt

Warren hopeful on Wilder v Fury II in 2019 despite Arum doubt

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British promoter Frank Warren has reacted to Bob Arum’s recent world exclusive interview with WBN last week.

On March 23rd, Arum spoke to World Boxing News in order to clarify plans for a Tyson Fury rematch with Deontay Wilder.

Arum’s quotes came on the back of Fury confirming a June 15 outing against the unheralded Tom Schwarz in Las Vegas.

The Top Rank boss had told WBN: “Assuming he (Fury) wins this fight, he’ll have another appearance in the United States. Then hopefully next year in February he’ll end up fighting Wilder.

“Their idea is to have Wilder fight twice on their platform. Then to get together a do a PPV fight. ESPN is just a distributor.

“It may well be that Wilder also has a network involved. They may want to share the distribution in some way with ESPN. That is something we’ve done before.”

Responding in his Metro column, Warren explained why Arum said 2020. He also revealed his hopes to make the return earlier.

“I know Bob Arum has now said (in an exclusive interview with World Boxing News) he thinks Tyson Fury’s rematch with Deontay Wilder won’t happen until February 2020. I know, like me, he wants the fight to happen before the end of 2019. But he is saying February for a reason. That’s because Wilder rejected the DAZN offer,” said Warren to Metro.

“I think Showtime have offered him a couple of fights before he gets back in the ring with Tyson. If that is the position, then yes, it would be early next year.

“All of us want to see it this year, and we’ll see what happens. Speaking to Bob, the main thing now is to get Tyson’s debut on ESPN out of the way.

“Get the big US exposure on ESPN, beat Tom Schwarz and then we’ll be in a better position to know what will happen with the Wilder rematch.

“I still believe the next big heavyweight championship fight provided they keep winning, will be Wilder vs Fury – not Anthony Joshua vs Wilder.

“There is a will between the two camps to make this rematch happen, that is a fact,” he added.

Fury has to deal with Schwarz in fine style, whilst Wilder is an overwhelming favorite to defeat mandatory challenger Dominic Breazeale on May 18.

Both have options for later in the year, meaning it’s unlikely fans will witness a second clash before the turn of a new decade.

Separate TV deals will lead to complicated negotiations which will have to see ESPN and Showtime share the rights to stage the bout.