UPDATE: It looks like Tyson Fury's co-promoter Frank Warren jumped the gun when announcing that Fury was likely to defend his WBC heavyweight championship against Germany's Agit Kabayel on December 5th. Today, Fury contradicted Warren by tweeting, "The Gypsy King is returning in 2021. Only those that have supported me 100% since my comeback will be with me for the glory." Warren himself followed up with this: "Tyson Fury will return to action in 2021." Fury and his management are said to be participating in mediation with former champion Deontay Wilder over whether Fury contractually owes Wilder a third fight. Their first fight was a draw, Fury KO'd Wilder earlier this year, but there was a rematch clause. Wilder is seeking to enforce the rematch clause but Fury contends Wilder missed the deadline to do so. It is not known whether money issues or the mediation is the reason behind cancelling Fury's fight in December. However, Fury recently went on record as saying he would never fight Wilder again after Wilder accused Fury of cheating (see below).
ORIGNAL STORY, Nov. 2, 2020: Promoter Frank Warren just told iFL TV that Agit Kabayel is expected to be Tyson Fury's next challenger for the WBC heavyweight championship on December 5th. Kabayel is 20-0 and fights out of Germany. His best win was a 2017 majority decision over gatekeeper Dereck Chisora. Warren, who co-promotes Fury along with Top Rank, said, "The contract's gone out, It's gone out to him [Kabayel] so hopefully within the next 24 hours, we'll get it it back. We've agreed to the terms and I just want to get it home now. The date of December 5th, was announced by Bob Arum and Top Rank a couple of weeks ago... He's got 24 hours to get the contract back. If we don't get it back, we'll move on [to another opponent]... We'll be announcing everything this week."
Deontay Wilder tweeted on November 11th: "Hey Tyson Fury, don’t worry about me I am fine. Blessed. The only thing I want from you is for you to honor your agreement and fight me. I gave you two shots when I didn’t have to and it changed your life. Now it is time for you to be a man and give me my shot as you agreed to."
Fury in his November 9th interview with respected British journalist Gareth Davies: "Wilder has tried to bring my character down with the bullsh*t he said. If I was like the rest of the world, I'd probably sue him for defamation of character for about 100 million, but considering I'm not really interested in doing that type of thing, he'll never get a shot at me for what he said. Listen, losing is one thing. Everybody can lose to a better man on the night, but to come out with the amount of BS that he came out with over the last eight months, he's conveniently waited until the contract expired to open his mouth. So, yeah, he's ridiculous and I dont even want to give him any air time... I think he's lost his marbles... I'm quite concerned for his mental welfare to be honest."
Fury posted a video on November 5th addressing charges by Wilder that he used loaded gloves to defeat Wilder earlier this year: "This is just a quick video to address all this foul play talk from Deontay Wilder and his team. I just read an article saying I might have had some blunt objects in my goals. Yeah... two big 19 stone, 275 pound destroyers in each glove. So yeah, getting punched in the temple may do that to you. But you know, not unless, Deontay Wilder's own trainer Jay Deas was in on the conspiracy as well, along with all the Las Vegas state commission guys who never left the room. Jay Deas was in the room while I had my hands wrapped. He examined them. He was in there when I had my gloves put on. Examined them. Yeah, and everybody else in the room, you don't leave, we all know this. So everybody citing foul play... bullshi*t! And the next time, I'll put a dent in his boxing career, end it, because it'll be two knockout losses in a row, bye bye forever."
Here is what Wilder said in a November 1st video: "The Bible tells us that silence is golden. But my ears can still hear and my eyes can still see. The Bible also tells us to be swift to hear and slow to speak. You see, what you don't understand, thief, what you did is what my people deal with all the time: someone cheating them from providing their greatness into the world, but it's a burden that we cut off only to make us stronger. I saw in the first fight when [Fury's cornerman] Ricky Hatton was pulling down your glove, to put your fist in the improper position. Y'all tried the same method the second time, but this time you scratched flesh out of my ears which caused my ears to bleed. It is impossible for a brand new ten-ounce glove to bend, to keep a smooshed-in form, or to have loose space. I highly believe you put something hard in your glove, something the size and shape of an egg weight. It's the reason why the side of my face swelled up in an egg-weight form, and it left a dent in my face as well. But in the midst of it all, you still can't keep this king down. You would have had to kill me. In the end, it took a crab-in-a-bucket referee and a disloyal trainer [Mark Breland] to throw the towel in just to stop me. Proverbs, chapter 30-31, says excuses may be found from a thief who steals because he is starving. But if he is caught, he will have to pay back seven times what he stole, even if he has to sell everything in his house. Payback is coming..."
The Fury-cheated conspiracy is based on video from the first Fury-Wilder fight [officially scored a draw although most people consider Fury the winner] where Fury's glove briefly flaps back in an odd way while Fury is punching Wilder. Fury may have landed a punch in the first fight while his hand was below the glove's padding, but it was not a significant blow and there is absolutely no proof of any intent to cheat. The Wilder conspiracists pushing this discredited theory do not explain how Fury could have slipped a weight into his gloves in the second fight when Wilder's representatives, as in any fight, have the right to witness and inspect the entire pre-fight handwrapping and gloving process.
