Shelly Finkel talks collapse of Wilder-Fury 2

After the news broke that Tyson Fury opted out of an immediate rematch with Deontay Wilder, Wilder’s co-manager Shelly Finkel tells WBN that their side had every intention of making that fight happen. Finkel says that Top Rank, who recently inked a co-promotional deal with Fury, just didn’t want to see it happen in the short term.

Finkel mentions that he’s spoken to Fury’s other promoter Frank Warren nearly everyday about making the fight, but that Fury’s deal with Top Rank and ESPN essentially precluded it from happening. Finkel goes on to say that in light of Fury’s alignment with ESPN, they were willing to do a co-promotional deal for the bout in a two-fight deal, but even that went nowhere fast.

Then, speaking on Top Rank’s ‘tremendous’ offer to Wilder for a potential Fury sequel, Finkel says the proposal essentially entailed handing Wilder over to Top Rank.

“We did receive an offer from Top Rank which included a multi-fight deal with Deontay,” The New Yorker explained.

“The deal effectively meant signing Deontay over to them and included a purse for a fight before the Tyson Fury rematch. But we didn’t want to – and are not going to – give up our fighter up to them.

“If we wanted to do a fight beforehand, we would do it ourselves.”

Finkel concluded by saying that Wilder will still continue with his plans to fight in May, in either Las Vegas or New York, which could prove to be good news for Dominic Breazeale who has been looking to land a fight against Wilder.