Tyson Fury has looked at his own fight poster and found something he doesn’t like. According to a Bloody Elbow post on X, Fury called it “a dying shame” to see Deontay Wilder on the undercard of his December 11 fight with Anthony Joshua.
That’s a strange sentence to read if you remember 2018 through 2021. Fury and Wilder shared a heavyweight trilogy that ranks with the best of the era, three fights that made both men bigger stars. Now one of them is headlining in Cardiff, Wales, on Netflix, and the other is fighting before him on the same card.
Dana White made it official on November 4. Wilder vs. Jai Opetaia, booked under Fury vs. Joshua. White sold it hard on X, pointing to Wilder’s 95% knockout rate and Opetaia’s unbeaten 31-0 record.
View post on X
Not everybody bought the pitch. Jake Paul piled on within the hour, framing it as a top-10 pound-for-pound fighter in Opetaia against a 41-year-old who has been stopped repeatedly of late. “Hold up….so a top 10 P4P fighter in Jai, who is 31-0 is fighting a 41 year old Deontay Wilder who has been. knocked out in 4 of his last 7 fights?” he wrote on X, before taking a shot at White’s line about always booking the best against the best.
Fury’s comment lands in the same neighborhood, minus the trolling. Paul was going after the matchmaking. Fury sounds like a guy who spent three fights across from Wilder and doesn’t enjoy seeing him lower on the bill.
View post on X
Wilder, for his part, doesn’t seem to be mourning anything. In a clip he shared, he asked White about his “energy levels” in the bedroom. White answered, “I feel like I’m in my thirties.” Wilder topped him: “I feel 19. The things I do, I swear.” Conor McGregor quoted the clip and added, “Thru the roof MAC ENERGY,” which is about as close to analysis as fight week gets.
I’ll take a 41-year-old with that right hand against an undefeated guy every time. Heavyweight chaos is the best product the sport has, and nobody has to like where it sits on the poster.
View post on X
The stakes are simple. If Wilder flattens Opetaia, Fury’s “dying shame” turns into an awkward question about who belongs in the main event next time. If Opetaia makes it 32-0, Paul gets to say he called it. Both answers arrive December 11 in Cardiff.
