Tyson Fury has joked he “would have nutted” Deontay Wilder had Bob Arum and Frank Warren allowed their face-off to go ahead at last night’s final press conference after tensions threatened to boil over in Las Vegas. The Bronze Bomber has refused to engage in back and fourth with the Gypsy King in the build-up to this fight until now – and the pair got personal when trading insults to prove the promotion of this fight is built upon genuine hatred as opposed to cliche trash talk.
Fury, who has always been considered as the king of mind games, knows exactly how to get under Wilder’s skin but the Brit appeared to lose his cool with the challenger last night, as Wilder doubled down on accusations of cheating following the first professional defeat of his career last February.
“I don’t regret it and I go to my grave believing in what I believe in,” said Wilder, in reference to his claims that Fury had an “egg-weight sized object” in his gloves.
“I know things for fact. I have confirmation, clarity of a lot of things.
“Many people can believe what they want. We’re all human. We believe what we want.
“But the eyes don’t lie. It only made me better as a man, as a fighter, to understand and see certain things. To know things for facts. It made me even hungrier than before.”
Fury has joked that he plans “to cheat again” in the build-up to this fight after also being accused of faking COVID-19 to get the previously arranged trilogy bout postponed.
The WBC and Ring Magazine heavyweight world champion needed no second invitation to fire back at his rival…
He said in retaliation: “I beat him the first time after three years out of the ring. Quite comfortable actually. He won two rounds of a 12-rounder.
“I absolutely obliterated him in the rematch. He didn’t even win any of the rounds.
“In this third fight, I just see much more of the same.
“I hope you’ve got your excuse book ready, dosser!”
The exchange threatened to spill over into physical confrontation ahead of Saturday night’s main event, as Fury’s promoters Arum and Warren decided to pull the plug on the face-off.
Yet host Kate Abdo did not appear to get the message as she invited the fighters to lock horns to the dismay of many in the room.
Speaking to iFL TV after the exchange, Fury joked he was ready to headbutt Wilder if he was allowed to get any closer to his opponent following their war of words.
“Why? [did Arum and Warren shout for the face-off to be cancelled],” he said.
“Yeah because Frank Warren was thinking I was going to chin him. I wouldn’t have chinned him, I would have just nutted the c***, like that [thrusts towards the camera].”