Arbitration Ruling Puts Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua Bout In Jeopardy

The highly-anticipated undisputed heavyweight title unification bout between British boxing stars Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua that was set for August 14 in Saudi Arabia is now in jeopardy of being called off.

Retired judge Daniel Weinstein, who is now an arbitrator has ruled in favor of former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in a case that could force Tyson Fury to complete his trilogy with the Tuscaloosa, Alabama native instead of fighting Joshua on August 14. The news was first reported by The Daily Star's Chris McKenna and more information on the specifics of the ruling were from Yahoo! Sports' Kevin Iole. Weinstein has granted Wilder an injunction request to enforce a provision in his original contract that will force Fury to fight him by September 15 and the ruling is enforceable by the courts.

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Neither Fury nor Wilder's camp has yet to comment on the ruling, but because it is a civil case there is an option for Fury to try to negotiate a deal with Wilder to step aside to allow the Joshua fight to happen in August, and then Wilder could face the winner. The pair's first meeting was back in December 2018 ending in a split-draw that led to their rematch in February 2020 and a dominant seventh-round TKO victory for Fury. Both fights brought in a combined 2.2 million pay-per-view buys

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