Comments Thread For: Arum Slams Whyte's Demands For Fury Fight: Now Considering Ruiz, Helenius As Opponents

[Blackstarr]

My impression was that Fury is indifferent to fighting in the UK but saw Whyte as an excuse to have an event back there. He seems pretty happy fighting in Vegas from what I've heard. I could see him going back to the UK for Helenius, but yeah Fury-Ruiz would make more sense as a Vegas fight.

My sense is Fury-Ruiz would do well enough business-wise with or without the WBC belt at stake, with or without the hardware Fury is still seen by many as the lineal champ of the division and beating him would immediately put Andy back into the mix for Usyk or a Joshua trilogy, if not a Fury rematch. I think if I was on Andy's team I'd rather he not fight Fury next and instead get him a tune-up and aim for a fight with Wilder, but they may feel that if they pass on a Fury fight now it's probably a while before they get another chance at a match against the top guys.

Idk, hopefully Fury and Whyte can come to terms and fight for the belt, because while I think the Usyk-Joshua 2 winner fights Fury regardless it'd be a lot nicer if all the belts were up for it.

I doubt a Ruiz win will put him in the mix for a Usyk fight. Eastern European fighters above all else care a lot about belts, and Uysk’s entire ambition is to become a 2-weight undisputed champion. While AJ will see a Ruiz win as a moral victory but one probably not worth running back, as he comprehensively beat him in a rematch already.

Do you think the fight will do well enough to give Ruiz a sufficient payday for plenty of risk and no belt on the line, bearing in mind he was paid over $7m for the first AJ fight with 3 belts on the line and turned down over $5m to fight Whyte in a much less riskier contest? As I said previously, Ruiz is going to want a similar ballpark to Whyte is demanding, so personally I don’t see this fight happening.

Like you, I really hope Fury and Whyte come to terms. I can just see negotiations for Fury vs AJ or Usyk being far more contentious if Fury brings less to the table with no WBC belt and no undisputed up for grabs, with the risk that everything falls through.

[Marchegiano]

I like Ruiz more myself, but I don't support dropping the belt over money.

[Arthur Daley]

Wilder's side believed Joshua-Wilder was a $100,000,000 fight and that Hearn's offer of $12,500,000 was a lowball offer. When Joshua said if it's really a $100,000,000 fight, give me $50,000,000 and I'll sign tomorrow, Showtime put up the $50,000,000 Joshua asked for.

Fury-Whyte was ordered at 80/20. For Whyte to be worth $10,000,000, that would mean it's a $50,000,000 fight ($40,000,000 for Fury and $10,000,000 for Whyte).

In what universe is that fight a $50 million fight? If Fury-Whyte goes to purse bid, nobody is going to bid over $25 million and it's possible nobody even bids $20 million. There's no scenario where Whyte gets $10 million for this fight.

It's not about Whyte's % it's more about Hearn winning the bid and have control of the fight.

[ShoulderRoll]

If Bob Arum attorney at law says Whyte doesn't have much of a case, he doesn't have a case. Look how accurate Arum was on the Wilder arbitration, Wilder thought he could force a third Fury fight and Bob said "no way, I'm a lawyer".

Don't forget guys, Bob Arum is also a lawyer.

How accurate was REEDEEMER about that Wilder arbitration? He claims to be in the legal field too.

[Rhino-T]

That crispy old cvnt, fish eyes and Tyson for what ever purpose don't want any part of Whyte and are going to put zero effort in to making it and walk away at the earliest possible opportunity.

They say they don't like Whyte demand, fine, keep talking, but have they even talked at all to Whyte or his manager or promoter or are they just guna bypass that and run.

Sounds like they would rather take a fight that literally nobody wants in place of a fight that some ppl want without evrn trying.

I'm not a fan of either so have no bias on the subject. However I don't think you understand the situation.

Whyte is locked into a dispute with the WBC. There is no point in talking further at this point. . 3 months to wait for the decision deadline.

What's the problem if fury wants to keep busy in the meantime? The WBC Mando isn't going anywhere and the belt won't be on the line if fury decides to fight whilst waiting for the situation to play out.

Personally I like to see fighters at their best. I want to see them as sharp as they can be .

[The Ninth Layer]

You’re exaggerating here..nobody considered AJ unbeatable - he had shown vulnerability in previous fights and Klitschko came very close to knocking him out.

And in my opinion you’re taking Ruiz’s victory completely out of the context in which it was achieved, just to prove a point. The odds in the rematch tells you everyone believed it was a fluke, which he subsequently proved and has gone on to achieve nothing of note so far, including getting dropped by Arreola. Had he beaten AJ like Usyk did and/or acquitted himself well in the rematch, I’d absolutely agree with you. But like Douglas, McCall, Rahman, Purrity and others before him, Ruiz will go down as a flash in the pan who by luck managed to beat a far superior opponent due to that fighter’s carelessness.

The ESPN rankings wasn’t on my radar and is the only one with this opinion after I checked again, so I’ll go with the consensus view. Whyte has beaten far more top 10 opponents and shown much better consistency and dedication - I’ll take this any day over a fluke win that was immediately and comprehensively reversed. The vast majority of mainstream boxing media subscribe to this view, but you’re obviously entitled to your minority opinion and we’ll just have to agree to disagree.

When I see fights between one of the sport's biggest star fighters and a heavy underdog believed by all to have no hope, ant then it turns out the underdog is unexpectedly competitive with the favorite and goes on to win a shocking upset, my usual takeaway is that the public was very wrong to underestimate the skill of the underdog, and not that the public was right but the underdog just got lucky. I didn't view Ruiz beating Joshua as a fluke win, instead I saw a fighter who competed with and outfought one of the sport's biggest stars against all expectations. Andy earned that win, he earned the heavyweight championship, and he earned my respect as one of the division's best fighters.

He looked bad in the rematch but he also looked like a guy who had won the lottery and spent the last three months celebrating his unexpected fortune. My guess is that like the rest of us he probably never imagined he would actually win the first fight, and then suddenly he was the heavyweight champion of the world. I'm not too surprised he looked awful in the rematch, my guess is he was too busy living it up to ever really worry about preparing for the second one. I give AJ a lot of credit for sticking to his outside fight plan but I also saw lots of moments where even a badly conditioned Andy was able to close in on him and every time AJ reacted like he was in big trouble, and there were also a lot of times where AJ looked like he was outright running away from Andy.

So yeah I think Andy has a lot of skill and imo he's already proven he can hang at the highest level. With the right team supporting him I believe he could someday win a world title again. On a related note I think it's kinda disrespectful to talk about "fluke" wins or losses. There's no luck in boxing, nobody is rolling dice or spinning the roulette wheel to see who wins. It's just one fighter's skills against another's.

[ShoulderRoll]

I respectfully disagree. Ruiz might end up being seen as the more famous fighter, but not the better - there’s a clear difference and you’re confusing the two. Yes Buster Douglas achieved worldwide fame and lasting recognition, but does anyone rank him amongst Holyfield’s best wins or anywhere close? Holyfield has beaten far better fighters with less name recognition who many wouldn’t know.

Talking “ten years from now” is absolutely pointless anyway..neither of their careers are close to being over and so much can change. What makes sense is talking the here and now, and right now Whyte is ranked above Ruiz in every boxing publication.

Andy Ruiz has proven himself to be a world champion level fighter.

Dillian Shyte hasn't.

Ruiz is a bigger fight for Tyson Fury.

[ShoulderRoll]

What's listed with the commission is different from a contractual guarantee. That's to keep their taxes down in the respective state.

Fury's commission purse from his last fight is still 15 times bigger than Shyte's filed purse from his last fight.

80-20 is a fair split.

But Bob Arum says they even offered 75-25...and Shyte's feam STILL turned that down. They are pricing themselves out and blocking this fight.

[Rodtang]

Fury is "The Greatest Show on Earth!" Muhammad Ali and P.T. Barnum all rolled into one! He doesn't need a belt. He's known world-wide! I believe Arum when he says they would drop the belt rather than pay Whyte 40%, and I believe Joshua and Usyk would rather fight Fury without a belt, than fight fight Whyte with the WBC title.

I'm not saying what Fury is or isn't. The point I'm making is that Joshua has consistently and repeatedly said he would give priority to whoever has the belt. That's just fact. Maybe he changes his mind but personally I don't think so. If Fury were to vacate and Whyte became champion, and Joshua got his belts back, it's a stone cold certainty that we'll see Joshua vs Whyte in a massive stadium fight for undisputed. That's what they've been working towards. But it's a moot point until Joshua gets the belts back and Fury vacates. And as I've said before I'm not sure that either of those scenarios happen. So I'm just gonna wait and see how Usyk vs Joshua 2 goes. Then we'll see.

[REDEEMER]

Andy Ruiz has proven himself to be a world champion level fighter.

Dillian Shyte hasn't.

Ruiz is a bigger fight for Tyson Fury.

Ruiz vs Arreola did poorly despite making it a domestic rivalry .

You really are out of the loop if you think any Ruiz fight with Fury is bigger then a U.K one between Fury and Whyte .